Tens of thousands of people evacuate to safety as typhoon approaches eastern Philippines

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MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine officials ordered tens of thousands of people to evacuate to safer grounds and prohibited fishermen from venturing out to sea in an east-central region Monday as a typhoon approached from the Pacific. Authorities warned of torrential rains and potentially deadly storm surges of up to 3 meters (nearly 10 feet).

Typhoon Kalmaegi was last spotted about 235 kilometers (146 miles) east of the town of Guiuan in Eastern Samar province, with sustained winds of up to 120 kilometers (74 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 150 kph (93 mph), and was forecast to slam into shore later Monday.

It was expected to blow westward overnight and on Tuesday and batter central island provinces, including Cebu, which is still recovering from a 6.9-magnitude earthquake that hit on Sept. 30 and left at least 79 dead and displaced thousands of people after their houses collapsed or were severely damaged.

Kalmaegi, locally named Tino, was forecast to further strengthen over the Philippine Sea before making landfall in Guiuan town or nearby municipalities, where Eastern Samar Gov. RV Evardone said he has issued mandatory evacuation orders starting Monday with the help of army troops, police, firefighters and disaster-mitigation contingents.

More than 70,000 people in the coastal towns of Guiuan, Mercedes and Salcedo were ordered to move to evacuation centers or concrete houses and buildings certified as sturdy enough to withstand the impact of the typhoon. The coastal areas were warned of tidal surges of up to 3 meters (nearly 10 feet) high, Evardone said.

Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful tropical cyclones on record, slammed ashore into Guiuan in November 2013 then raked across the central Philippines, leaving more than 7,300 people dead or missing, flattening entire villages and sweeping scores of ships inland. Haiyan demolished about a million houses and displaced more than 4 million people in one of the country’s poorest regions.

“Nobody’s complaining among the residents because of their experience with Yolanda. They know it’s better to be safe than sorry,” Evardone told The Associated Press, referring to Haiyan’s Philippine name. “They then saw bodies scattered everywhere on streets. Many lost everything.”

Thousands of villagers were also being evacuated from island provinces near Eastern Samar ,officials said, and disaster-response agencies, including the coast guard, have been put on alert.

The Philippines is battered by about 20 typhoons and storms each year. It is often hit by earthquakes and has more than a dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.