According to rescue officials, more than a thousand people left their homes as floodwaters brought on by Super Typhoon Saola surged through primarily rural areas in the northern Philippines.
According to the state weather agency, Saola passed by the northeast of the main island of Luzon throughout the course of Saturday night before continuing south just off the Pacific coast. It was packing winds of up to 185 km/h (115 mph).
Both fatalities and significant damage have not been recorded.
On the Pacific coast of Isabela province, as well as on the northern point of Cagayan province to the north and Ilocos Sur province on the northwest coast of Luzon, residents of coastal settlements exposed to strong winds and heavy waves were relocated to higher ground, according to officials.
“These coastal towns have no protection because they are directly facing the Pacific,” said Isabela rescue official Constante Foronda, putting the number of evacuees in Isabela at 372.
“It’s raining constantly but the winds are not that strong,” he told AFP by telephone, adding: “We got lucky.”
Every year, the Philippines experiences 20 severe storms, which kill hundreds of people and keep large areas in abject poverty.
388 people were evacuated overnight in Cagayan, which is nearby, due to floods in various coastal municipalities on Luzon’s northeast point, according to rescue official Ruelie Rapsing of AFP.
In addition, 1.2 million residents of the province had severe electricity outages as a result of downed power lines, he noted.
Photos of residences in the municipality of Aparri being engulfed by knee-deep floodwaters were posted on the province government’s Facebook page by the press office.
A landslide, flooding, and overflowing rivers affected four towns in Ilocos Sur, forcing the evacuation of 421 people, according to the civil defense office in Manila.
At 2:00 pm (0600 GMT), the eye of Saola was about 90 kilometers from the isolated coastal village of Casiguran, although it was expected to stay over water for the next few hours before heading east and then northwest in the next days in the direction of Taiwan.
According to the weather service, flash floods or landslides could be caused by heavy rain, which is the major concern.
Over the next 24 hours, it was anticipated that up to 200 millimeters (almost eight inches) of rain will fall along the shores of Cagayan and Isabela.
