Fourth typhoon in a month hits the Philippines
Kyiv • UNN
Typhoon Toraji has hit the Philippines, forcing the evacuation of 2,500 villages and the closure of ports. This is the fourth typhoon in less than a month, with the previous three claiming 159 lives.
Another typhoon - the fourth in less than a month - has hit the disaster-stricken Philippines, with thousands of villages ordered to evacuate and ports closed, officials said on Monday, UNN reports citing AFP.
Details
According to the national weather agency, there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage when Typhoon Toraja made landfall on the country's northeast coast near the town of Dilasag, about 220 kilometers northeast of the capital Manila.
"We have been hit by strong winds and heavy rains. Some trees are falling and the electricity has been cut off since yesterday," Mervina Pableo, civil defense chief of Dinalangan, near Dilasag, told AFP.
"We are not yet able to go outside to assess the damage," she said.
According to disaster relief representative Donald Allan Tai, at least 1,400 people were evacuated from the coastal areas, as well as from Dinalangan and Baler municipality.
In total, the government ordered the evacuation of 2,500 villages on Sunday, although as of Monday, the National Emergency Management Agency had no data on the total number of evacuees.
According to the weather service, Toraja, with maximum wind speeds of 130 kilometers per hour, was moving rapidly to the northwest and is expected to enter the South China Sea on Monday evening after passing through the inland mountainous part of the main island of Luzon.
Schools and government offices have been closed in areas expected to be hardest hit by the latest typhoon.
The National Weather Agency has warned of strong winds and heavy rains in the north of the country, as well as a "moderate to high risk of storm surge" - giant waves threatening the coast of the main island of Luzon.
According to the Coast Guard on Monday, about 700 passengers were stranded in ports, and the Meteorological Service warned that sea travel is dangerous for all types and tonnages of vessels.
Following Toraja, a tropical depression could also potentially hit the region as early as Thursday evening, weather forecaster Veronica Torres told AFP.
She added that Tropical Storm Man-yi, which is currently east of Guam, could also threaten the Philippines next week.
"Toraja followed three cyclones in less than a month, killing 159 people.
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Typhoon Yinxing hit the country's northern coast on Thursday, damaging homes and buildings. A 12-year-old girl was killed in one incident.
Prior to that, the strong tropical storm Trami and super typhoon Kong-ray together killed 158 people, the national disaster agency reported, with most of the casualties recorded during Trami.
About 20 major storms and typhoons hit the Philippines or nearby waters every year.
A recent study has shown that storms in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly forming closer to coastlines, intensifying faster, and lasting longer over land due to climate change.
