(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Authorities in a Philippine city ravaged by Super Typhoon Haiyan were yesterday faced with how to keep residents still living in tents after the 2013 disaster safe as a new, powerful cyclone threatened to bring giant waves ashore.
The state weather service said Typhoon Hagupit was heading west for the central islands of Samar and Leyte, and would make landfall as early as Saturday afternoon with gusts of up to 170km an hour.
Residents in the city of Tacloban, which bore the brunt of Haiyan - the most powerful storm ever to make landfall - last year were clearing out grocery shelves in an effort to stock up on emergency provisions ahead of the storm.
Meanwhile, authorities were due to meet early today to identify new evacuation centres far from shore.
Tacloban city Vice Mayor Jerry Yaokasin said about 500 families were still living in tents more than a year after waves up to seven metres (23 feet) tall driven ashore by Haiyan destroyed their homes.
They and some 3,000 other families housed in temporary shelters are the priority in case the city government orders a mandatory evacuation, he said.
Residents of coastal villages and landslide-prone communities were told to move to government-designated evacuation areas.
The weather service said yesterday shorelines are vulnerable to "storm surges" or walls of water up to four metres tall that could be driven ashore by Hagupit's violent winds. "Of course they are deadly. These would be at least one storey tall," state weather forecaster Alczar Aurelio said. "We tell our people, 'Do not panic but take precautionary measures'," Yaokasin said.
Hagupit is currently hovering over Palau islands and is expected to pick up strength before hitting eastern Philippines on Saturday. Tropical Storm Risk forecasts Hagupit will become a category 4 typhoon in 36 hours.
Haiyan claimed more than 7,350 lives as it swept in off the Pacific. Many of the dead were from Tacloban, the regional capital of more than 220,000 people on Leyte island, an impoverished, largely agricultural region.
Aurelio said there was a "60 percent" chance Samar and Leyte would be hit by Hagupit because a high-pressure wall of air in the northern Pacific was preventing the typhoon from veering north.
Tacloban resident Ailyn Metran said staff at her state health insurance company office have been told to pack away computers and documents ahead of Hagupit. "I can't concentrate at work because I keep checking the (disaster alert) websites," Metran said.
While Hagupit is weaker than Haiyan's 250kph winds, it is expected to bring 3-4 metre high storm surges, topple houses made of light materials and uproot trees, said officials at the state weather bureau, adding there was a 75 percent chance the typhoon will hit land. "We are on a worst (case) scenario," Landrico Dalida Jr, deputy administrator at the state weather bureau Pagasa, said at a media briefing, adding there was a 25 percent chance Hagupit may veer north and miss Philippine coasts as it heads to Japan.
The Southeast Asian country was hardest hit by extreme weather in 2013, said a report by a German government-funded think tank Germanwatch.
Concerns over extreme weather have been exacerbated by an apparent shift in storm paths, with southern regions hit by powerful typhoons in the past three years. About 20 typhoons strike the country each year, most hitting the north along the main island of Luzon.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.