MANILA — Super Typhoon Man-yi struck the Philippines’ most populous island Sunday, forcing more than 1.2 million people to flee their homes as authorities warned of “life-threatening” conditions across the archipelago.
The storm, which made its initial landfall late Saturday on Catanduanes island, maintained maximum sustained winds of 185 kilometers (115 miles) per hour as it carved through the nation’s economic heartland of Luzon.
“Extensive damage” has been reported in Catanduanes, according to civil defense chief Ariel Nepomuceno, though no deaths have been confirmed. Images from the hard-hit municipality of Panganiban showed widespread destruction, with toppled power lines, destroyed buildings, and debris scattered across roads.
“Pepito was so strong, I have never experienced a typhoon this strong,” said Panganiban Mayor Cesar Robles, using the local name for Man-yi.
The national weather service warned of severe flooding, landslides, and storm surges up to three meters (10 feet) high in coastal areas, including the capital Manila. The agency issued its highest and second-highest typhoon warnings across a broad swath of Luzon.
Man-yi marks the sixth major storm to hit the Philippines in the past month, an unusual cluster that has already claimed 163 lives. Climate scientists attribute the increasing intensity of such storms to climate change, which leads to heavier rainfall and stronger winds.
“Typhoons are getting stronger,” said Marissa Cueva Alejandro, 36, a mother of three from Catanduanes. “Before, we would only experience signal number three to four, but now typhoons are getting as strong as signal number five.”
Despite evacuation orders, some residents chose to remain in their homes. “Some of our countrymen are really hard-headed. They do not believe us until the typhoon arrives,” said Geofry Parrocha, a disaster agency official in Aurora province.
The storm is expected to cross north of Manila before moving into the South China Sea on Monday. Its late-season arrival comes as meteorologists noted an unprecedented clustering of four simultaneous storms in the Pacific basin earlier this month, the first such November occurrence since records began in 1951.
About 20 major storms typically hit the Philippines annually, though multiple intense weather events in quick succession are rare. The nation’s location along the Pacific Ring of Fire makes it particularly vulnerable to natural disasters.
