Typhoon pounds remote Philippine island group near Taiwan

MANILA: Typhoon Krathon pounded a remote group of tiny Philippine islands near Taiwan on Monday, cutting power and communication services, the state weather service and officials said.

The typhoon passed near the island of Sabtang in the Batanes group late in the morning with maximum sustained winds of 170 kilometres (106 miles) an hour and gusts of up to 215 kilometres (134 miles) an hour.

The state weather service said in its latest bulletin that “significant to severe impacts from typhoon-force winds are possible” in Batanes, a province of some 20,000 people.

Batanes provincial governor Marilou Cayco, reached by satellite phone by the DZBB radio station in Manila, said the typhoon began to hit the islands last night and that 27 families had been evacuated.

“The wind is so strong, it is like an earthquake,” she said.

Cayco said “many” houses were damaged, with roofing sheets flying through the air.

“People are asking for help but we cannot go out” because it was too dangerous, she said.

There were no reports of casualties before electricity and telephone contact were cut by the strong winds, said a senior Batanes police official, who was on the main island of Luzon and asked not to be identified.

The police official also told AFP “pre-emptive evacuations” were undertaken shortly before the typhoon struck.

Police and rescue officials in Batanes province could not be reached by normal phone service.

Photos and video clips posted on social media showed coconut trees swaying violently in a white blanket of rain and fog on Batan and Sabtang, two of the islands that make up Batanes province.

The state weather service said Krathon was moving slowly west but was expected to turn north by late Tuesday and strike Taiwan late on Wednesday.