DHAKA: Philippine officials said on Thursday that thousands of villagers, including those from a central province devastated recently by an earthquake, are being evacuated as one of Asia’s most powerful typhoons this year approaches.

Typhoon ‘Haiyan’ was already packing sustained winds of 215 kilometres per hour and ferocious gusts of 250 kph, and could pick up strength over the Pacific Ocean before it slams into the eastern Philippine province of Eastern Samar on Friday, according to government forecasters.

Eduardo del Rosario, who heads the government’s main disaster-response agency, said governors and mayors were supervising the evacuation of thousands of residents away from landslide, and flood-prone communities in several provinces where the typhoon is expected to pass.

President Benigno Aquino III has ordered officials to aim for zero casualties, a goal often broken in an archipelago lashed by about 20 storms each year, most of them deadly and destructive. ‘Haiyan’ is the 24th such storm to hit the Philippines this year, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1918 HRS, NOV 07, 2013
RoR/RIS