Typhoon Rammasun hits the Philippines
Many people fled their homes in the Philippines as Typhoon Rammasun rumbled toward Manila, the capital, where it made landfall early Wednesday.
The storm is the first typhoon to touch down in the Philippines since Typhoon Haiyan, which was one of the most powerful storms ever recorded. It devastated the country in 2013, leaving thousands dead.
More than 168,000 people have been evacuated so far, according to the country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. One person has been killed and two people injured.
Power was out throughout Manila, and the Manila Electric Co. said on Twitter that the blackouts were due to “a sudden plant outage.”
Typhoon Rammasun, also known as Typhoon Glenda in the Philippines, first made landfall early Tuesday in the central Visayas region.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said the storm had maximum sustained winds of 93 mph near the center with gusts of up to 115 mph.
Forecasters at the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center expect the typhoon will weaken as it moves northwest over the Philippines, then intensify as it passes over the South China Sea.
The typhoon will then probably cross the Gulf of Tonkin and make landfall near Hainan Island in southern China by Friday or early Saturday, forecasters said.
Rammasun is a Siamese word meaning “thunder of god.”
Follow @asmantz on Twitter for more breaking news.
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