A powerful storm pounded the northern Philippines today, killing at least one person, toppling trees, and knocking out power as thousands sheltered with neighbors or in emergency evacuation centers.
Typhoon Doksuri packed maximum sustained wind speeds of 175 kilometers an hour as it hovered over waters around Dalupiri Island, off the northern tip of Luzon, the state weather agency said in its latest update at 11 a.m.
The agency warned of “violent, life-threatening conditions” as severe winds and heavy rain pounded the lightly populated region.
A woman selling bread rolls died when she was hit by a falling coconut tree in Ramon municipality in the northern province of Isabela on Wednesday, provincial disaster official Constante Foronda told AFP.
Rey Aguinaldo, a retired government official in the coastal municipality of Pasuquin in Ilocos Norte province, said: “The wind and rain were so strong overnight that I could not sleep well.”
“When I got up today, I saw fallen trees and broken branches outside. We have no electricity,” Aguinaldo told AFP.
Doksuri had been a super typhoon as it swept across the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday but weakened as it neared the Philippines.
It is expected to weaken further as it moves across the South China Sea, grazing Taiwan as it heads towards southeast China.
High waves lashed Taiwan’s southeastern coast on Wednesday, with the Central Weather Bureau issuing warnings and heavy rain advisories.
China also issued its highest alert for Doksuri, stopping trains and calling fishing boats to shore as the storm approached.
Thousands flee their homes
In the Philippines, around 12,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Cagayan Province, including 431 in the Babuyan Islands. This was following warnings of three-meter storm surges, Cagayan provincial disaster official Ruelie Rapsing told AFP.
Dalupiri is one of the five islands that make up the tiny Babuyan archipelago.
Flooding has also been reported in the coastal municipalities of Lallo, Pamplona, and Claveria.
About 1,500 people were also evacuated from coastal communities in neighboring Isabela, Foronda said. “We won’t allow them to go home until we get the all-clear from the experts,” he said.
Some evacuees have sheltered with neighbors who have concrete houses, while others were taken to municipal halls. "The Sanchez Mira municipal hall roof was blown off,” Rapsing said.
“The windows of an evacuation center there also broke, so we had to move them to multi-purpose halls back in their villages.”
The weather agency also warned that the typhoon had intensified the seasonal southwest monsoon, bringing heavy rains across the rest of Luzon and the central islands.