A chunk of those 700,000 evacuated are from the province of Albay, large-scale preventive evacuation are also done in Sorsogon. Typhoon Nona is expected to make landfall Monday evening.
Typhoon Nona international name is Melor and may cause giant waves, floods, and landslides. Nona made landfall in Batag, Northern Samar, Monday morning, and was expected to hit land again in Sorsogon province in the evening.
The typhoon brushed the northern tip of Samar, a farming island of 1.5 million people early Monday, with winds gusting at 185 kilometers (115 miles) per hour, the state weather bureau Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damages.
Samar was among areas devastated in 2013 by Typhoon Haiyan, when giant waves wiped out entire communities, leaving more than 10,000 people dead or missing.
In Albay province alone, almost 600,000 people were evacuated due to fears that heavy rains could cause mudslides on the slopes of nearby Mayon Volcano, according to the national disaster monitoring office. In Sorsogon, 130,000 people were also evacuated. Typhoon Nona is expected to cut across the country's central heartlands in the early hours of Tuesday, December 15, before heading out to the South China Sea in the west.
