Construction of new buildings alongside older establishments is seen within the business district in Makati City, metro Manila, Philippines, January 25, 2017. Photo by Reuters
A super typhoon swept towards the northern Philippines on Tuesday, the country’s weather agency said, triggering evacuation orders for coastal communities expected to bear the brunt of the powerful storm.
Super Typhoon Doksuri was packing maximum sustained winds of 185 kilometers an hour (115 miles per hour) as it headed towards a group of three lightly populated islands off the northern tip of the main island of Luzon, the agency said.
The storm, which is called “Egay” in the Philippines, was expected to make landfall or pass very close to the Babuyan islands or northeastern Cagayan province by Wednesday afternoon, the agency said in its latest bulletin at 0000 GMT.
It would then sweep across to Taiwan and eastern China.The storm was expected to dump more than 200 millimeters (7.9 inches) of rain on the islands and the northern portion of Cagayan, Apayao and Ilocos Norte provinces on Tuesday.
Three of the five Babuyan islands are inhabited, with a population of around 20,000 people.
Local disaster official Charles Castillejos said coastal communities on the islands had been ordered to leave their homes, while fishermen had been told to get their boats out of the water.
