Nearly 200,000 people have been evacuated in the Philippines due to a massive typhoon which has struck the eastern coast of the nation’s southern islands. This powerful typhoon comes after a series of other storms which have left soil in the impacted regions heavily saturated and unstable, prompting fears that thousands of towns and villages may be at risk of experiencing landslides and severe flooding.
Thousands evacuated as Super Typhoon Rai hits Philippines
The Philippine government isn’t taking any chances with this typhoon and is ordering evacuations on a massive scale in the regions expected to be hardest hit.
Similar storms in 2011 and 2013 left thousands dead in the same areas and authorities have moved quickly to ensure that the death toll is lower this time.
Super Typhoon Rai made the jump from a category 1 to a category 5 storm within just 24 hours as it approached the eastern coasts of Mindanao and the Visayas region.
Tens of millions of people live in the projected path of the storm and the government is racing to evacuate the most vulnerable areas.
With people crowding into makeshift camps there is also concern that these conditions might spawn a new outbreak of Covid, which is still a problem for the country.
Many of the people in the path of the storm live in small and relatively impoverished fishing villages along the coast. Authorities fear that it will be difficult to reach all of these people.
Travel halted
Super Typhoon Rai is the 15th major storm to hit the Philippines this year; heavily impacted areas have still not been able to fully rebuild from the damage wrought by the last storms.
Thousands of people are stranded in ports without any way of leaving the country, as the government has halted all sea travel in the region and airlines have canceled flights.
