Philippine Atmospheric - Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

Philippines Evacuates Nearly 1 Million As Typhoon Goni Nears

AFP News via International Business Times — Sat, 31 Oct 2020 13:51:16 +0000

Nearly a million people in the Philippines were evacuated from their homes Saturday as the most powerful typhoon of the year so far barrelled towards the country, with authorities warning of “destructive” winds and flooding.

Typhoon Goni is expected to slam into Catanduanes Island Sunday morning with wind speeds of up to 205 kilometres per hour (127 miles per hour) before crossing the main island of Luzon, the state weather forecaster said.

A man fishes in a swollen river caused by heavy rains north of Manila, ahead of Typhoon Goni’s landfall in the Philippines Photo: AFP / Villamor Visaya

It comes a week after Typhoon Molave hit the same region of the natural disaster-prone archipelago, killing 22 people and flooding low-lying villages and farmland, before crossing the South China Sea to Vietnam.

“It looks like we will have really strong winds, increasing the chances of widespread flooding and landslides,” Mark Timbal, spokesman for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, told local broadcaster ABS-CBN.

“Storm surges are imminent on our east coast. We are monitoring Mayon and Taal volcanoes for possible volcanic mudflows.”

Coastguard workers evacuate residents from the coastal villages of Buhi town, Camarines Sur province, south of Manila Photo: Philippine Coast Guard / -)

Civil Defense chief Ricardo Jalad said “almost a million” people had left their homes in the Bicol region, which includes the southern part of Luzon and Catanduanes.

Authorities spent Saturday marshaling rescue vehicles, emergency response teams, and relief goods ahead of the typhoon.

Residents walk past parked wooden boats along a boulevard in Legazpi Photo: AFP / Charism SAYAT)

“Violent winds and intense rainfall” are expected that could trigger floods and landslides in an area of more than 20 million people, the weather service said.

There was a “high risk” of storm surges of more than three metres (10 feet) high along parts of the coast, it added.

(Photo: AFP / Gal ROMA)

Schools which have been empty since the start of the coronavirus pandemic are being used as emergency shelters as well as government-run evacuation centres and gymnasiums.

“Evacuating people is more difficult at this time because of Covid-19,” Bicol regional civil defence spokesman Alexis Naz told AFP.

Mary Ann Echague, 23, and her family fled their home in the coastal city of Legazpi in Bicol to an inland primary school where they were sheltering in a classroom with several other families.

“We fear the wrath of the typhoon,” said Echague, who was with her two children, parents and siblings. They had carried with them a portable stove, tinned meat, instant noodles, coffee, bread, blankets and pillows.

“Each time we’re hit by a typhoon our house gets damaged, since it’s made of wood and galvanised iron roofing,” she said.

“We have always managed. We find a way to get by.”

Hundreds of people have been left stranded after the coastguard ordered ferries and fishing boats into port in expectation of rough seas throwing up 15-metre waves.

Goni is expected to “weaken considerably” as it crosses Luzon and enters the South China Sea Monday morning, the state forecaster said.

The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons every year, which typically wipe out harvests, homes and infrastructure, keeping millions of people perennially poor.

Its deadliest on record was Super Typhoon Haiyan, which unleashed giant waves on the central city of Tacloban and left more than 7,300 people dead or missing in 2013.

Source: https://www.ibtimes.com/philippines-evacuates-nearly-1-million-typhoon-goni-nears-3073806

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Super Typhoon Goni explodes into 2020’s strongest storm on Earth, moves toward Philippines

Jason Samenow — Sat, 31 Oct 2020 12:55:38 +0000

In just a day’s time, Super Typhoon Goni transformed from an ordinary Pacific cyclone into the year’s most intense storm on the planet. The typhoon is on a beeline for the Philippines, where it is expected to roar ashore Sunday.

A satellite view of Super Typhoon Goni in the western Pacific Ocean on Friday evening local time. (NOAA)

Goni’s explosive intensification occurred over the warm waters in the western Pacific Ocean. Its peak winds catapulted from just shy of 100 mph to nearly 180 mph between Thursday and Friday night local time.
Once its peak winds surpassed 150 mph, it qualified as a “super typhoon,” which is equivalent to a strong Category 4 hurricane in the Atlantic. But it grew even more intense, comparable to a strong Category 5.

Its leap in strength occurred over waters about 2 to 3 degrees (1 to 1.5 Celsius) warmer than normal. Such rapid intensification is made more likely by human-caused climate change, which has raised ocean temperatures globally.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Pearl Harbor described Goni as “a compact but very powerful system.” On weather satellite, it displayed a sharply defined eye and near-perfect symmetry, characteristic of the most intense tropical cyclones.

Goni is predicted to track westward and make landfall in central Luzon, northeast of Manila, around 8 p.m. local time Sunday, weakening some before landfall.

In the short term, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center expects Goni to undergo an eyewall replacement cycle in which the most intense thunderstorms surrounding its center reorganize. Although this process usually decreases a storm’s peak winds, it often results in a larger storm.

Track forecast for Super Typhoon Goni. (Joint Typhoon Warning Center)

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center predicts that Goni will make landfall in Luzon with peak winds of more than 140 mph, which is equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane.

Forecasters with the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), referring to this storm as Typhoon Rolly (the Philippines has a separate naming system for storms in its vicinity), have issued tropical cyclone warnings as the storm approaches. They are calling for “heavy to intense rains” starting as soon as Saturday evening, which might trigger flooding and landslides. PAGASA is also predicting damaging winds and a storm surge as high as 6½ to 8 feet (2 to 2.5 meters).

The Inquirer, an English-language newspaper in the Philippines, reported that tens of thousands of people are expected to shelter in government evacuation centers and that the country faced a “double whammy” from the storm and the novel coronavirus. Ricardo Jalad, executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, encouraged wearing face masks and social distancing and said evacuation sites should not be filled to capacity, the newspaper reported.

Goni is predicted to weaken as it passes over Luzon before emerging over the South China Sea. Additional weakening is forecast as it heads west toward Vietnam, as a result of hostile high-altitude winds and dry air. Landfall in Vietnam as a tropical storm is forecast for around next Wednesday.

While the Philippines have been impacted by several tropical cyclones in 2020, overall storm activity in the western Pacific has been below normal. Storms have generated less than half the energy of an average season, according to Colorado State University. This is the opposite of the tropical Atlantic, which has seen record-setting storm activity.

While the Atlantic has raged with storminess, the Pacific has been strangely quiet

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/super-typhoon-goni-explodes-into-2020-e2-80-99s-strongest-storm-on-earth-moves-toward-philippines/ar-BB1ay6sr

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