Pope Francis’ outdoor Mass scheduled for Saturday in the Philippines is expected to face a typhoon approaching with 75 mph winds and heavy rain.
The Pontiff is to fly Saturday morning to the Mass site in Tacloban, which is still recovering from the 2013 disaster of Super Typhoon Haiyan, described as perhaps the strongest storm ever recorded with 195 mph sustained winds that killed 6,300 people nationwide.
In the predawn hours of Saturday, another typhoon was headed for the same general area in the Philippines, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center said.
Typhoon Mekkhala was upgraded from a tropical storm and should make landfall in the Philippines two hours after the start of the Pope’s outdoor Mass, CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller said.
Francis is scheduled to land in Tacloban at 9:30 a.m. Saturday local time (8:30 p.m. Friday ET) and will then hold an outdoor Mass 30 minutes later near the airport for hundreds of thousands of people.
Wet, gusty forecast
If the Mass proceeds as scheduled, it will likely be a soggy, windy experience with a measure of peril, Miller said.
Vatican officials weren’t immediately available for comment Saturday.
“I wouldn’t want to be on that plane flying in there, but if I had to be on it with somebody, I’d rather it be with the Pope,” Miller said.
Heavy rainfall and gusty winds “could blow over any type of temporary structures that are built for this Mass,” Miller said. “There’s also a potential for lightning and small tornadoes that could spin up. It could be a potentially dangerous situation.”
Worshippers will be gathering on a site near marshlands, Miller said.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how the marshland holds up. This was an area that was devastated by Typhoon Haiyan. The whole runway was washed over with water,” Miller said.
Landfall two hours before Mass
Saturday’s Typhoon Mekkhala, which is called Typhoon Amang in the Philippines, is expected to make landfall about noon Saturday on the island of eastern Samar — a site about 50 miles from where the Pope will be in Tacloban.
Just two weeks ago, a tropical storm struck Tacloban and surrounding area, causing a commercial passenger plane to slide off the runway while landing at the Tacloban airport, Miller said. Tropical Storm Jiangmi, renamed Seniang in the Philippines, also killed 54 people in landslides and flashfloods in that region, CNN affiliate ABS-CBN reported.
During the Pope’s visit to Tacloban, he will have lunch with survivors of the 2013 Typhoon Haiyan, renamed Typhoon Yolanda in that country. That typhoon also displaced 918,000 families nationwide, the government says.
Francis is also to bless the Pope Francis Centre for the Poor and will meet with clergy and more typhoon survivors in the cathedral in Palo.
The Pope is expected to fly out of Tacloban at 5 p.m. Saturday (4 a.m. Saturday ET).
“At that point, they’re still in the teeth of the storm. So not only is getting in a challenge, but also getting out,” Miller said.
Sunday Mass in Manila
The Pontiff is also scheduled to perform an outdoor Mass in Manila on Sunday before millions of Filipinos, Miller said.
By then, the storm should weaken to a tropical depression, and its center should be about 109 miles south of the Pope, Miller said. Still, the storm is capable of delivering its heaviest rainfall at that distance, and Manila could face gusty winds and significant rain during the Mass, Miller added.
“We’re not as certain that Manila will be a complete washout as Tacloban will be,” Miller said.
The Pope’s trip to Asian isles began Tuesday in Sri Lanka, and he landed in the Philippines on Friday.
On Friday, Francis met with President Benigno Aquino, and the Pontiff urged political leader to reject corruption and promote “”honesty, integrity and commitment to the common good,” the Vatican said. He also spoke of “the moral imperative of ensuring social justice and respect for human dignity,” according to a copy of his remarks provided by the Vatican.
“Here in the Philippines, countless families are still suffering from the effects of natural disasters. The economic situation has caused families to be separated by migration and the search for employment, and financial problems strain many households. While all too many people live in dire poverty, others are caught up in materialism and lifestyles which are destructive of family life and the most basic demands of Christian morality,” the Pope said in other remarks.
The Pope will end his tour Monday, when he will leave Manila for Rome.