Via Inquirer News, a long report: ‘Pablo’ smashes into southern PH. Excerpt:
According to Pagasa, Typhoon Pablo is expected to be at 180 km southwest of Roxas City by Wednesday morning. By Thursday morning, it will be at 230 km northwest of Puerto Princesa City and 780 km west of Metro Manila by Friday morning.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or serious damage but Mindanao was in lockdown with residents of coastal and flood-prone areas moving into shelters as floods hit some areas.
Aviation and shipping were suspended, with 80 flights grounded and thousands of ferry passengers stranded at ports as the coastguard ordered vessels to stay in port, the civil defence office said.
More than 41,000 people had moved into nearly 1,000 government shelters across the island by early Tuesday, it said in its latest bulletin.
The commercial centre of Cagayan de Oro, one of Mindanao’s largest cities, was hit by flooding as rivers overflowed following heavy rain.
School holidays were declared in Mindanao and large areas of the central Philippines.
President Benigno Aquino III led calls for evacuations on Monday, saying: “(Bopha’s) destructive potential is no laughing matter. It is expected to be the strongest typhoon to hit our country in 2012.”
The Philippines is battered by about 20 typhoons a year, some of them destructive. Bopha is the sixteenth so far this year.
