Typhoon forecast to hit Philippines today

TYPHOON Mitag intensified as it moved slowly towards the Philippines yesterday, triggering mass evacuations, flight cancellations and exacerbating flooding from a previous storm.

The typhoon has winds of 175km/h at its centre and is set to strengthen.

The storm is almost stationary east of the central Bicol region, the Philippines’ typhoon alley, but was likely to make landfall today, weather officials said.

People in Bicol sought refuge in churches, schools and town halls as more than 50,000 people fled their homes.

Disaster officials said 200,000 people would be evacuated from Bicol, where volcanic mud from the slopes of Mount Mayon can trigger lethal landslides.

Mitag is expected to cut through Bicol before passing into the South China Sea by Monday.

It is presently a category 2 typhoon and is expected to intensify to a category 4 typhoon today, according to storm tracker website, tropicalstormrisk.com.

Rains from the system are likely to affect most of the central and northern Philippines, weather officials said.

The Red Cross said the repeated pounding of the north and central areas by storms threatened rebuilding efforts.

“What is particular about this is that these areas have been hit regularly for the last year,” said Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippines National Red Cross.

Mitag comes less than a week after tropical storm Hagibis, which killed 13 people in the country.

About 25 sailors were missing in the South China Sea after a Philippine fishing boat capsized in rough waters, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.

The ship, numbered 805900, was carrying about 80 sailors when it sank near the Nansha Islands on Thursday.