Typhoon Cimaron roars out of Philippines

By Karen Lema

MANILA (Reuters) - Typhoon Cimaron, the strongest storm to hit the Philippines in eight years, blasted out to the South China Sea on Monday after bringing the north of the archipelago to a near standstill.

Cimaron slammed into Luzon, the Philippines' most populated island and its rice bowl, on Sunday night as a maximum category five storm or "super typhoon" -- technically the same strength as Hurricane Katrina that devastated New Orleans in 2005.

After packing winds of nearly 200 km per hour, Cimaron weakened to a category 2 typhoon with a wind velocity of 120 kph and gusts of up to 150 kph as it moved westward towards Vietnam.

Two people were killed in the coastal province of Aurora after strong winds swept away wooden houses while three others were injured in a landslide in the northern city of Baguio, disaster officials said.

The Department of Agriculture said up to 30 percent of the rice and corn harvests could have been destroyed, causing up to 400 million pesos ($8 million) worth of damage but cautioned that the estimates were high and could be revised down.

The Philippines, a major rice buyer in Asia, produces 40 to 45 percent of its own crop in the fourth quarter.

"We are still validating the figures," Jesus Emmanuel Paras, agriculture undersecretary, told Reuters, adding that the department would issue an update later on Monday.

Classes and most public offices were closed and thousands of people living in coastal and low-lying regions were forced to flee to higher ground. Trees were uprooted and electricity lines were ripped up leaving at least one province without power.

Cimaron is expected to weaken to a tropical storm before hitting the central Vietnamese coastline on Friday, according to www.tropicalstormrisk.com.

The typhoon, the ninth to hit the Philippines this year, disrupted preparations for the Roman Catholic festivals of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day on Nov. 1 and 2, when millions of Filipinos throng cemeteries to honour their dead.

Officials warned public buses not to leave for northern provinces while Asian Spirit cancelled flights to cities in the region. There were no travel advisories from Philippines Airlines or Cebu Pacific.

Cimaron crashed into the archipelago just weeks after Typhoon Xangsane raked the Philippines and Vietnam, killing at least 169 people and taking a heavy toll on electricity networks, roads and crops.

The Philippines cut its annual agricultural growth target to around 4 percent for 2006 from at least 5 percent due to the destruction wrecked by Xangsane.

Storms regularly hit the Philippines but parts of northern Luzon are mountainous and heavily logged, raising the risk of deadly floods and landslides.

In the worst disaster in recent years, more than 5,000 people died in the central province of Leyte in 1991 in floods triggered by a typhoon.

Reference : http://thestar.com.my