The typhoon, also known as Nock-ten, was packing maximum sustained winds and caused some areas to lose power and communication lines

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A typhoon slammed into central Philippines late on Sunday, bringing strong winds and heavy rain and cutting off power, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, weather officials and radio reports said.



Typhoon Nina (also known as Nock-ten) was packing maximum sustained winds of 185kph (115mph), with gusts up to 255kph when it made landfall over Catanduanes province on the Bicol peninsula, which was under the highest storm alert on Sunday evening.

Philippines typhoon: thousands flee as Christmas Day storm barrels down Read more

The typhoon made a second landfall over Camarines Sur province, then weakened slightly with winds of 175kph but gusts at 290kph, the weather bureau said.

“We continue to pray, stay positive and stay alert. Brownout in a lot of areas already,” Camarines Sur governor Miguel Luis Villafuerte said in a post on his Instagram account.

Communication lines have been cut in some areas, radio reports said.

Heavy rainfall, destructive winds and battering waves were threatening heavily populated rural and urban regions, where the Philippine weather agency raised typhoon warnings, stranding thousands of people in ports as airlines canceled flights and ferries were prevented from sailing.

Officials warned of storm surges in coastal villages, flash floods and landslides, and asked villagers to evacuate to safer grounds. Land, sea and air travel have been suspended in some areas.

Around 218,000 people fled to evacuation centres after authorities warned of storm surges and flooding in coastal villages and low-lying areas.

Christmas is the biggest holiday in the Philippines, which has Asia’s largest Roman Catholic population, making it difficult for officials to get people’s attention to heed warnings. With many refusing to leave high-risk communities, some officials said they decided to carry out forced evacuations.

Villafuerte offered roast pig, a popular Christmas delicacy locally called “lechon”, in evacuation centers to entice villagers to move to emergency shelters.

“I know it’s Christmas ... but this is a legit typhoon,” Villafuerte tweeted on Christmas Eve. “Please evacuate, we’ll be having lechon at evacuation centers.”

Camarines Sur officials had targeted about 50,000 families, or about 250,000 people, for evacuation by Saturday night, but the number of those who responded was initially far below expectations.

In Catanduanes province, Vice-Governor Shirley Abundo said she ordered a forced evacuation of villagers, saying some “are really hard-headed, they don’t want to leave their houses because it’s Christmas”.

“We need to do this by force, we need to evacuate them now,” she told ABS-CBN television.

The department of social welfare and development, which helps oversee government response during disasters, said only about 4,200 people were reported to have moved to six evacuation centers by Sunday morning in the Bicol region, which includes Camarines Sur.

Food, water and other emergency supplies had been pre-positioned in areas expected to be lashed by the typhoon, said Felino Castro of the social welfare and development department. His department was to activate an emergency cluster comprising the military, police, coast guard and other agencies Sunday to oversee disaster response plans.

The typhoon could make another landfall early on Monday while moving west faster at 20kph, from 15kph previously, and crossing the provinces of Camarines Norte, Southern Quezon, Laguna, Batangas and Cavite, weather forecasters said.

The typhoon’s eye will be near Metro Manila on Monday afternoon.

In 2013, more than 6,000 people were killed and 200,000 homes destroyed when Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest ever storm to make landfall in the Philippines, hit the central islands of Leyte and Samar.

About 20 major typhoons pass through the Philippines each year. Since 1948, at least seven have hit during the Christmas period.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report