Super Typhoon Goni, the world's strongest storm of the year, left 16 dead in the Philippines and thousands displaced.
Despite the higher risk of coronavirus infections, officials from the Philippines sent tens of thousands of people to evacuation centers as the nation faced the world's strongest storm.
Super Typhoon Goni, or locally known as Super Typhoon Rolly, slammed into the Philippines' shores on Sunday.
In a report by the nation's disaster risk-monitoring agency, on early Monday, an estimated 458,000 individuals were evacuated, and the majority of them came from the main island of Luzon, which also included 177 coronavirus patients and not less than 400 medical staff from 10 different quarantine facilities.
In a televised briefing, Philippine Health Department Secretary Francisco Duque asked the local officials to make sure that social distancing measures would still be observed in evacuation centers, Yahoo! News reported.
Super Typhoon Goni, which was equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane, hammered the eastern part of the nation on Sunday morning, which crossed numerous provinces, including those near the capital, Manila, before heading towards the South China Sea.
According to Yale Climate Connections meteorologist Jeff Masters, Typhoon Goni is the "the strongest landfalling tropical cyclone" in history. The title was previously owned by 2016's Super Typhoon Meranti and 2013's Super Typhoon Haiyan.
Most of the fatalities in the typhoon were recorded in the provinces of Catanduanes and Albay. Several residents of Albay were displaced after the strong rains caused a raging lahar from the Mayon Volcano.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte flew in his chopper and conducted an aerial inspection of the areas ravaged by Typhoon Goni.
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Power Outages
According to Bloomberg, Governor Joseph Cua of the province of Catanduanes, where Goni first made landfall, more than 65 percent of homes were damaged. Moreover, telecommunication lines and the supply of electricity were also down.
In addition, it was noted that 125 cities and towns were without electricity since six power plants were downed, and transmission lines were also damaged.
The power outage was a major concern, according to the country's health department, since it may lead to problems with keeping the specimen and test kits for COVID-19, which need cold management.
According to Mark Villar, Secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways, Goni left behind estimated infrastructure damage of about P5.6 billion or equivalent to $116 million. He also noted that around P1.73 billion worth of crops were damaged from the typhoon, adding to the damage brought by Typhoon Molave last week, which was estimated at around P2 billion.
Goni traveled away from the main island of Luzon on Sunday night. However, another storm, Typhoon Atsani (Typhoon Sioni), is approaching the country and is also expected to hit the Philippines this week, The Indian Express reported.
According to the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), around 20 cyclones pass through the Philippines on average every year. The country has become a receiving point for most typhoons brewing in the pacific.
A bigger challenge comes as the coronavirus pandemic is also plaguing the country, which might escalate as evacuation sites are cramped with people.
In 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan killed more than 6,300 people in the country.
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