A crowd of Filipino passengers are seen at a bus terminal days before Christmas Day in Pasay city, Manila. (Photo: EPA)Hanoi (VNA) – The Philippine authorities on December 24 urged hundreds ofthousands of people to evacuate for fear that typhoon Nock-Ten will hit thecountry’s eastern coast on Christmas Day.
Nock-Ten is expected to be packingwinds of 222 kilometres per hour when it makes landfall on Catanduanes, aremote island with 250,000 residents on December 25, reported the United StatesJoint Typhoon Warning Center.
It is then forecast to hit thecountry's main island of Luzon and the capital city of Manila on December 26.
RachelMiranda, spokeswoman for the civil defence office in the Bicol region thatincludes Catanduanes, said the office recommended the local administration toconduct urgent evacuations to minimise casualties from the storm.
The highest levels of readinessare being undertaken, as food and other provisions are prepared in thedesignated evacuation centres.
ThePhilippine islands are often the first major landmass to be stricken by stormsthat generate over the Pacific. The Southeast Asian country endures about 20major storms each year, many of them deadly.
Themost powerful and deadliest was Haiyan, which left 7,350 people dead or missingand destroyed entire towns in heavily populated areas of the central Philippinesin November 2013.-VNA
