The latest storm information from the Philippine weather agency said that Typhoon Ragasa is rapidly intensifying and is expected to make landfall in the sparsely populated Batanes or Babuyan Islands of the Philippines on the afternoon of September 23.
Maximum sustained winds at the center of the storm are 185 km/h, gusting up to 230 km/h as the storm moves west towards the Philippines.
Philippine Home Affairs Minister Jonvic Remulla warned local authorities "not to waste time to evacuate families from the danger zone".
In Taiwan (China), nearly 300 people will be evacuated from Hualien County in the east of the island. The number of people evacuated is likely to change depending on the path of Typhoon No. 9 Ragasa.
"We expect a land typhoon warning to be issued tonight. At 6:00 a.m. on September 22, the typhoon will enter the waters off the coast of Taiwan (China)". said the CWA.
Due to the impact of super typhoon Ragasa, Philippine weather expert John Grender Almario warned that "serious flooding and landslides" are expected in areas north of Luzon Island.
"We expect the impact of the super typhoon to begin tonight (September 21). The strongest impact will occur at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning (September 22)," he said.
Strong winds and heavy rains are forecast in other parts of Luzon.
As the super typhoon is about to make landfall, in Manila, on September 21, thousands of protests against fraud in flood control projects.
Corruption scandals are on the rise, involving thousands of billions of dollars lost due to unfinished flood control projects or "ghost" projects involving many lawmakers that have caused outrage nationwide.
The Philippines is the first major landfall to be in the Pacific typhoon belt. The island welcomes an average of 20 typhoons a year, leaving millions of people in disaster-prone areas in a state of persistent poverty.
Scientists warn that storms are getting stronger as the Earth heats up, partly due to the impact of human-caused climate change.
On September 21, a bulletin from the Hong Kong Meteorological Station (China) said that the weather forecast at this financial center will "increasely deteriorate" on September 23 and 24, with strong gusts of wind and rising sea levels due to the storm similar to Typhoon Mangkhut in 2018.
