A super typhoon heading towards the country is intensifying and could have a “potentially catastrophic” impact, the state weather forecaster has warned, as millions of people face risk of storm surges.

More than 650,000 people have fled their homes ahead of Super Typhoon Man-yi, which is expected to make landfall yesterday or early today, becoming the sixth major storm to hit the archipelagic nation in the past month.

The weather service warned yesterday that Man-yi, with winds of up to 240 kilometers per hour, was on track to hit the sparsely populated island province of Catanduanes as a super typhoon, or “near-peak intensity.”

“As Super Typhoon ‘Pepito’ intensifies further, a potentially catastrophic and life-threatening situation looms over the northeastern Bicol region,” the forecaster said in his latest update, using the storm’s local name and referring to the southern part of the main island of Luzon. .

The forecaster said high seas of up to 14 meters were expected around Catanduanes, while more than 7.6 million people were at risk from storm waves of 1-3 meters.

At least 163 people have died in five storms that have hit the Philippines in recent weeks, also leaving thousands homeless and destroying crops and livestock.

The government urged people to heed warnings to flee to safety.

“If preventive evacuation is necessary, let’s do it and not wait for the hour of danger before evacuating or calling for help, because if we do that, we will endanger not only our own lives but also the lives of our rescuers,” the Undersecretary of Internal Affairs said. Marlo Iringan said yesterday.

In Albay province, Legazpi City grocer Myrna Perea was sheltered in a school classroom with nine other families, along with her fruit seller husband and three children, after they were ordered to leave the slum.

Conditions were hot and cramped (the family spent Friday night sleeping together on mats under the classroom’s only ceiling fan), but Perea said it was better to be safe.

“I think when we come back our house will collapse because it is made of light materials; it only takes two gusts of wind to destroy it,” the 44-year-old said.

“That’s why we evacuated. Even if the house is destroyed, the important thing is that we don’t lose a family member.” —AFP