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Philippines Scrambles to Prepare as Typhoon Bears Down

MANILA, Philippines — Thousands of people in the path of a powerful typhoon began evacuating their homes in the northern Philippines on Thursday as officials scrambled to prepare for what could be a devastating storm.

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By
Richard C. Paddock
, New York Times

MANILA, Philippines — Thousands of people in the path of a powerful typhoon began evacuating their homes in the northern Philippines on Thursday as officials scrambled to prepare for what could be a devastating storm.

Typhoon Mangkhut, with winds measuring up to 127 mph, is expected to make landfall on Saturday in northern Luzon, the country’s largest and most populous island. The region is home to 4 million people.

The Philippines’ civil defense chief, Ricardo Jalad, briefed top officials, including President Rodrigo Duterte, and said that government agencies were positioning emergency response teams, food, equipment and medical supplies in the areas likely to be affected.

Officials also were setting up evacuation centers, many of them in schools, and encouraging the elderly, children and other vulnerable people to take shelter there. Airports were closed as well.

The approach of Typhoon Mangkhut has stirred memories of Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the central Philippines in 2013, wreaking devastation across a wide section of the country and killing more than 6,000 people.

The president then, Benigno S. Aquino III, was widely seen as unprepared for the magnitude of the disaster, and his administration’s relief effort was criticized as slow and inefficient.

Duterte is hoping to avoid a similar outcome. He has deployed members of his Cabinet to the provinces in the typhoon’s path to help oversee emergency and relief efforts. But he told reporters that it was premature to seek foreign assistance.

“It would depend on the severity of the crisis,” Duterte said. “If it flattens everything, maybe we need to have some help.”

The typhoon, called Ompong in the Philippines, was a few hundred miles offshore in the Pacific on Thursday.

Save the Children Philippines, which provides disaster relief in the Philippines, was also deploying emergency workers and stockpiling supplies in the region before the storm.

The group’s chief executive, Alberto Muyot, said the typhoon had the potential to cause large-scale damage. Families in its path, he said, should take shelter in evacuation centers.

“We haven’t seen a typhoon this powerful hit the Philippines in some time,” Muyot said. “We’re particularly concerned about those living in coastal and low-lying communities, which are set to face ferocious winds, heavy rainfall and flooding, as well as the risk of storm surge.”

In addition to worries about deaths and the destruction of property, officials are also concerned about the typhoon’s effect on farming in the region, which grows much of the country’s food. The agriculture secretary, Emmanuel Piñol, said an estimated 3 million acres planted with rice and corn are in the path of the typhoon.

The province of Ilocos Norte, at the northwestern tip of Luzon, is the birthplace of the longtime dictator Ferdinand Marcos, and remains the Marcos family’s political base.

His daughter, Imee R. Marcos, the governor of the province, was leading efforts there to prepare for the typhoon. She urged residents to secure their houses and to assist members of the community who are in need of help.

“Our priority is saving human lives,” she said.

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