Almost 350,000 evacuated as typhoon hits Philippines

PHILIPPINES (Nov 1): A super typhoon hit Catanduanes island in the early hours of 4:50am (4.00 Malaysian time), forcing some 347,000 people to be evacuated.

Named Goni Typhoon, or Rolly in the Philippines, it is the most powerful storm to hit the country since Typhoon Haiyan. which left 6,000 dead in 2013, reported BBC News today.

Social media images show roofs torn from homes and evacuation centres, damaged infrastructure, flash flooding and blocked roads. Local governors have also reported power supply outages.

Four people, including a five-year-old child in Albay province, were reported to have died, where two were drowned, one was swept away by volcanic mud and another by a falling tree.

The evacuation exercise has been complicated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has already caused 380,739 infections and led to 7,221 deaths in the Philippines.

"Evacuating people is more difficult at this time because of Covid-19," Bicol regional civil defence spokesman Alexis Naz was reported telling AFP on Saturday.

Covid-secure emergency shelters set up in schools, gyms and government-run evacuation centres now have to be repurposed for the storm evacuees. Covid-19 patients being treated in isolation tents had to be evacuated, officials said.

While relief packs, heavy machinery and personal protective equipment were being transported into the affected areas, a local mayor in Quezon province pointed out that the funds for disaster emergencies had been depleted by the pandemic.

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