Typhoon Goni heads for Japan

MANILA Typhoon Goni was bearing down on Japan late Sunday, after leaving at least 10 dead in the northern Philippines and causing thousands of people to be evacuated in Taiwan.
By Sunday afternoon the storm was 240 kilometres (149 miles) east of Taiwan’s capital Taipei and was moving north at 19 miles an hour, the island’s Central Weather Bureau said.
The Philippines was hit hardest by the storm, which triggered landslides and floods — killing at least 10 and leaving 17 missing in the north of the main island of Luzon.
“Pre-emptive evacuations have been conducted in most of the area but sad to note, some of the areas did not do a pre-emptive (evacuation) and some did real-time evacuation when the event was already starting to happen,” said Alexander Pama, the country’s civil defence chief.
Big waves crash at the coast due to strong winds brought by Typhoon Goni, locally named as Ineng, at the Manila bay in Navotas cityThe 17 people missing were from a small mining community that was buried by landslides, police in the area said.
Although the Philippine weather station said most of the danger had now passed, 40 evacuation centres are still operational with over 4,000 people housed inside, said Tess Briones, disaster response chief at the social welfare department.
In the northern province of Ilocos Norte, an island town in the middle of a river had its bridge destroyed, leaving about 730 families stranded, officials said.
The storm is the ninth out of an average of 20 that hit the Philippines each year.
Goni weakened as it moved northwards off Taiwan’s east coast, but the authorities warned of heavy rainfall with particular concern for areas left damaged and waterlogged by Typhoon Soudelor earlier this month.
inside no 9.1Thousands were evacuated from outlying islands and mountainous areas as a precaution, including 1,500 from the hot spring region of Wulai just outside Taipei, which was devastated by Soudelor.
Wulai residents had piled large sandbags along the river to prevent flooding, with the area already receiving 130 millimetres (five inches) of rainfall in the last two days as Goni approached.
Ahead of the typhoon, 1,700 tourists were also evacuated from outlying tourist destinations, bringing the total number of evacuees to almost 4,000.
Authorities warned people not to visit coastal areas due to towering waves.
By Sunday afternoon, however, some evacuees were returning home as the storm moved away from Taiwan and there were no reports of serious damage.
Goni was expected to move near a remote Japanese island chain called the Sakishima Islands by Sunday evening, according to the Japan Meterological Agency.
The agency has issued high wave and strong wind warnings for the islands which are part of Okinawa prefecture.
The storm is expected to move toward Japan’s main islands in the coming days.

sourced:ttrweekly.com