The Philippines is no stranger to severe weather – it sees an average of 20 typhoons and storms each year.Mangkhut is the 15th – and the strongest – storm of 2018.
MANILA: Typhoon Mangkhut has left at least 12 people dead in the northern Philippines, mostly in landslides and houses that got pummeled by the storm’s fierce winds and rain.
China’s National Meteorological Center issued an alert saying Mangkhut would make landfall somewhere on the coast in Guangdong province on Sunday afternoon or evening.
Days of evacuations and stockpiling of supplies appeared to have paid off, though more than 64,000 people were taking shelter in evacuation centers while officials began clearing debris from access roads.
Airports were closed and disaster teams prepared evacuation centers in public buildings such as schools, where classes have been suspended.
The most ferocious typhoon to hit the disaster-prone Philippines this year slammed ashore before dawn in Cagayan province on the northeastern tip of Luzon island, a breadbasket that is also a region of flood-prone rice plains and mountain provinces with a history of deadly landslides.
Francis Tolentino, an adviser to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, said the 12 died mostly in landslides and houses that got pummeled by the storm’s fierce winds and rain.
Mangkhut’s sustained winds weakened to 170 kilometers (105 miles) per hour with gusts of up to 260 kph (161 mph) after it sliced northwestward across Luzon before blowing out to the South China Sea, aiming at Hong Kong and elsewhere in southern China.
Many stores and houses were damaged but most residents remained indoors as occasional gusts sent small pieces of tin sheets and other debris flying dangerously.
Two air force cargo planes and 10 helicopters were on standby in Manila to help transport rescuers and aid supplies.
