Over 140,000 people were forced into cramped shelters as a powerful typhoon hammered the Philippines on Friday, compounding the nation’s battle with the coronavirus pandemic.
Typhoon Vongfong has dumped heavy rains since it roared ashore on Thursday, with hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people in its path on the coast or in flimsy homes.
According to the disaster officials, the storm hit as tens of millions of Filipinos are hunkered down at home against the coronavirus, but at least 141,700 have had to flee because of the powerful storm.
Provincial and city governments, many of which are already strapped for resources due to the outbreak, are grappling with logistical and space issues, with an estimated 200,000 people needed to be moved from their homes in coastal and mountainous areas because of fears of flooding and landslides.
Authorities have said that they will run shelters at half of capacity, provide masks to people who don’t have them and try to keep families grouped together.
However, many spaces normally used as storm shelters have been converted into quarantine sites for people suspected of being infected with coronavirus.
The Philippines was bracing for the typhoon while trying to fight the outbreak largely by locking Filipinos in their homes and prohibiting gatherings that can set off infections.
More than 11,600 COVID-19 cases, including 790 deaths, have been reported in the country.
Heavy rains in the past have sent landslides of debris cascading down the volcano and onto the communities below, burying and killing those in the way.
Typhoons are a dangerous and disruptive part of life in the Philippine archipelago, which gets hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year.
Last year, in December, Hurricane Kammuri lashed the Philippines with fierce winds and heavy rain, as tons of hundreds took refuge in shelters and the capital Manila ready to close down its worldwide airport over security considerations.
A July 2019 study by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank said the most frequent storms lop one percent off the Philippine economy, with the stronger ones cutting economic output by nearly three percent.
The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, killing hundreds and putting people in disaster-prone areas in a state of constant poverty.
The country’s deadliest cyclone on record was Super Typhoon Haiyan, which left more than 7,300 people dead or missing in 2013.