Philippines Orders Evacuations as Typhoon Strikes

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Philippine authorities carried out evacuations and thousands of travelers were stranded as Typhoon Mirinae slammed into the archipelago, where about 1,100 people have died in cyclones this year.

Evacuations were ordered in the island province of Catanduanes and the coastal areas of Quezon province, where Mirinae’s eye made landfall, police and disaster agency officials said. Eight thousand were evacuated in Rizal province south of Manila, ABS-CBN News reported.

From the Pacific Ocean, the typhoon entered Quezon around midnight and was 60 kilometers south-southeast of Manila at 4 a.m., the local weather bureau said. The storm, with winds of 130 kilometers per hour, will exit Batangas province for the South China Sea around noon, the agency said.

The typhoon’s arrival coincides with the All-Saints’ weekend, when many Filipinos travel to their home provinces in the archipelago of more than 7,000 islands. Many visit cemeteries to pay respects to their ancestors. Others vacation during the three-day weekend.

The Philippines has been battered by more than 10 cyclones this year. More than 121,000 people remain in evacuation centers after cyclones Ketsana barreled into Luzon Sept. 26 and Parma followed this month. Hundreds were killed in floods and landslides and farm damage forced the world’s biggest importer of rice to schedule a supply auction for this week.

Delay Trips

The National Disaster Coordination Council advised Filipinos to delay their trips until at least this afternoon.

About 8,500 people and hundreds of trucks and cars were stranded as the government banned boats and ferries from taking to sea in Luzon and the Visayas islands farther south, Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo, Coast Guard commandant, said. About 20 fishermen were rescued off Quezon, he said.

“While the typhoon is here, travel has to be stopped both ways,” Tamayo said by phone. Vessels weighing more than 1,000 gross tons may sail by tomorrow, he said.

As many as 800 people were killed after a ferry sank in June last year when Typhoon Fengshen slammed into the Philippines.

Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific Air, the nation’s biggest carriers, canceled or delayed flights to and from Manila and said they had moved aircraft to central airports, away from the typhoon’s path. At least five bus companies suspended trips between Luzon and Visayas, ABS-CBN reported.

Leaving Homes

Troops persuaded people along Catanduanes’ rivers to leave their homes, Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Basco said in a phone interview. Some are already in town halls, he said. More than 4,000 people are expected to be evacuated in Quezon, Senior Superintendent Elmo Sarona, the police chief there, said.

Roads in Pagsanjan and Lumban in Laguna, a province south of Manila, were inaccessible amid strong currents of knee-deep water, said military spokesman Noel Detoyato.

In Manila, while winds are strong, the rain is falling in spurts, meaning there’s a “very slim possibility” of the degree of flooding brought on by Ketsana, weather bureau Administrator Prisco Nilo said in an interview. Ketsana left about 80 percent of Manila, a city of almost 12 million people, underwater.

Winds splintered trees and toppled free-standing or lightly constructed signage in the Manila area.

Power had been cut in several parts of the city because of strong winds, Manila Electric Co. spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said in a phone interview today. The power retailer has monitored outages in parts of the capital and nearby provinces of Laguna and Rizal.

Rains have been “continuous” along Mirinae’s path, Nilo said, resulting in some flooding in Laguna province, south of Manila.