TYPHOON Phanfone pummelled central Philippines today, bringing a wet and miserable Christmas to millions in the mainly Catholic nation.

Thousands are stranded at shuttered ports or evacuation centres, and residents cowered in rain-soaked homes as Phanfone leapt from one small island to another for the second day.

The typhoon toppled houses and trees, and blacked out cities in the Philippines’ most storm-prone region, but no deaths were reported.

Though weaker, Phanfone is tracking a similar path as Super Typhoon Haiyan – the country’s deadliest cyclone on record that left more than 7,300 people dead or missing in 2013.

More than 10,000 people spent the night in schools, gyms and government buildings hastily converted into evacuation centres as Phanfone made landfall yesterday, said civil defence officials.

The weather office said the typhoon strengthened slightly overnight, and is gusting at 195kph – velocities that can knock down small trees and destroy houses made of light materials.

More islands along its projected path are expected to be hit with destructive winds and intense rainfall before blowing out into the South China Sea early tomorrow, it said.

Some 25,000 people who tried to get home for the traditional Christmas Eve midnight dinner with their families remain stranded at ports today, with ferry services still shut down, said the coast guard.

Scores of flights to the region remain cancelled, though the populous capital, Manila, on the northern edge has so far been spared.

The Philippines is the first major landmass facing the Pacific cyclone belt.

As such, the archipelago gets hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, killing scores of people, wiping out harvests, homes and other infrastructure, and keeping millions perennially poor.

A July study by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank said the most frequent storms lop 1% off the country’s economic output, with the stronger ones cutting output by nearly 3%. – AFP, December 25, 2019.