Thousands flee ahead of approaching 'Ramil'

Thousands of residents of an island in southern Luzon left their homes along the Pacific coast Saturday as weather experts warned of coastal flooding ahead of the approach of Tropical Storm Ramil (international name: Fengshen), rescue officials said.

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The eye of the storm was forecast to brush past Catanduanes, an impoverished island of 270,000 people, later in the day with gusts of up to 80 kilometers (50 miles) an hour.

Ramil will bring heavy rainfall, along with a “minimal to moderate risk” of coastal flooding from 1-2 meter (3-2 foot) waves being pushed ashore by the disturbance, the government weather service said.

More than 9,000 residents of Catanduanes moved to safer ground, the provincial disaster office said, in a well-rehearsed routine on the island that is often the first major landmass hit by cyclones that form in the western Pacific Ocean.

The Catanduanes provincial government ordered local officials to “activate their respective evacuation plans” for residents of “high-risk areas” including the coast, low-lying communities and landslide-prone slopes, rescue official Gerry Rubio told AFP.

The neighboring provinces of Sorsogon and Albay also called for preemptive evacuations, but official figures were not immediately available.

The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, routinely striking disaster-prone areas where millions of people live in poverty.