Pepito weakens into a typhoon as it crosses Luzon
This frame grab from handout video footage taken and released on November 17, 2024 courtesy of Mayor Cesar Robles shows an aerial view of damaged houses in Panganiban town, Catanduanes province, after Super Typhoon Pepito hit the province. | Photo by Handout / Mayor Cesar Robles / AFP
MANILA, Philippines — Typhoon Pepito (international name: Man-yi) lashed the Philippines’ most populous island on Sunday, with the national weather service warning of flooding, landslides and huge waves as the storm sweeps across the archipelago nation.
Pepito was still a super typhoon when it made its second landfall on Luzon, with maximum sustained winds of 185 kilometres (115 miles) per hour, but was downgraded to a typhoon category as it traversed the mountainous island.
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More than 1.2 million people fled their homes ahead of Pepito, including several thousand in the capital Manila, as the weather forecaster warned of a “life-threatening” impact from the powerful storm, which follows an unusual streak of violent weather.
This handout taken and released on November 17, 2024 courtesy of Mayor Cesar Robles shows a destroyed house in Panganiban town, Catanduanes province, after Super Typhoon Pepito hit the province. | Photo courtesy of Mayor Cesar Robles / AFP
Pepito uprooted trees, brought down power lines and smashed flimsy houses to pieces after making its first landfall late Saturday on lightly populated Catanduanes island in the typhoon-prone Bicol region.
No deaths have been reported, but there was “extensive” damage to structures on Catanduanes, civil defence chief Ariel Nepomuceno said.
This handout photo released on November 17, 2024 through the courtesy of John Marshal Aquino Facebook page shows a resident standing next to a blown off kiosk along a street in Panganiban town, Catanduanes province, after Super Typhoon Pepito hit the province. | Photo by John Marshal Aquino / John Marshal Aquino / AFP
Pepito remained a super typhoon as it moved northwest on Sunday and hit heavily populated Luzon — the country’s economic engine — with forecasters warning of a “potentially dangerous” situation in Aurora province.
“I saw roofing sheets flying off the houses around our building. Branches were being torn off trees,” said Julius Fabianes, a rescuer with the Aurora disaster agency in Baler town.
Pepito weakens
The weather service forecast significant weakening as Pepito crossed Luzon and moved offshore later Sunday or early Monday.
Flooding and landslides were expected as Pepito dumped heavy rain over provinces in its path.
Forecasters also warned storm surges reaching more than three metres could swamp vulnerable coastal communities, including in Manila.
This handout photograph taken and released on November 17, 2024 by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) shows coast guard personnel clearing a highway of fallen trees in Gigmoto town, Catanduanes province, south of Manila, after super Typhoon Pepito hit the province overnight. | Photo by Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) / AFP
Late in typhoon season
Panganiban municipality in the northeast of Catanduanes took a direct hit from Pepito.
Photos and a drone video shared on the Facebook page of Mayor Cesar Robles showed fallen power lines, damaged and destroyed buildings, and trees and corrugated iron sheets strewn on the roads.
“Pepito was so strong, I have never experienced a typhoon this strong,” Robles said in a post, as clean-up efforts got underway and people returned home.
Climate change is increasing the intensity of storms, leading to heavier rains, flash floods and stronger gusts.
Mother-of-three Marissa Cueva Alejandro, 36, who grew up in Catanduanes and sheltered with a relative during Pepito, said typhoons are getting stronger.
“Before, we would only experience (typhoon) signal number three to four, but now typhoons are getting as strong as signal number five,” she said, referring to the weather service’s five-tiered wind warning system.
Workers unload supplies at an evacuation centre for those affected by Super Typhoon Pepito in San Vicente town, Camarines sur province on November 17, 2024. Photo by CHARISM SAYAT / AFP
Pepito is the sixth storm in the past month to batter the archipelago nation. At least 163 people died in the previous storms, which left thousands homeless and wiped out crops and livestock.
About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the Southeast Asian nation or its surrounding waters each year, killing scores of people, but it is rare for multiple such weather events to take place in a small window.
The weather forecaster maintained its second-highest typhoon signals over a wide band of provinces stretching from Luzon’s east coast, where Pepito made its second landfall, across to the western side of the island where it will exit.
Pepito hit the Philippines late in the typhoon season — most cyclones develop between July and October.
This month, four storms were clustered simultaneously in the Pacific basin, which the Japan Meteorological Agency told AFP was the first time such an occurrence had been observed in November since its records began in 1951.
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