Evacuation underway in Philippines as typhoon feared to make landfall

The Philippines has started evacuating some 800,000 Filipinos in several provinces who are living in the path of a strong typhoon that is expected to make landfall on the northern Philippines on Saturday, authorities said on Thursday.

Edgar Posadas, spokesman for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), said "preemptive evacuation" is in effect in areas that will likely face the brunt of typhoon Mangkhut, the most powerful and the 10th storm that hit the Philippines this year.

Authorities urged Filipinos living in the path of the storm to take shelter in evacuation centers, adding the typhoon has the potential to cause large-scale damage, flash floods and landslides.

NDRRMC Executive Director Ricardo Jalad said they are targetting to evacuate around 824,000 people from the provinces of Cagayan, Isabela, Apayao, Abra, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte.

The slow moving typhoon, locally named Ompong, continues to threaten the northern and central provinces of the Philippine main Luzon Island particularly in the Cagayan and Isabela provinces.

The typhoon is forecast to unleash extreme storm surge, flooding, landslide and damaging winds.

The typhoon was located 575 km east northeast of Virac, Catanduanes province with maximum sustained winds of 205 kph near the center and gust of up to 255 kph and it is moving west at 25 kph, the state weather bureau Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said.