Thousands flee as fourth typhoon in a month hits Philippines
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Coastguard personnel rush to repair a damaged storm surge barrier in the coastal town of Buguey, Cagayan province, Philippines, on Nov 7, 2024.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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MANILA - Thousands of people sought shelter and ports shut down in the Philippines on Nov 11, as the disaster-weary nation was struck by another typhoon – the fourth in less than a month.
Typhoon Toraji hit near Dilasag town, about 220km north-east of the capital Manila, the national weather agency said.
“We’re getting hit with strong winds and heavy rain. Some trees are being toppled and power has been cut since yesterday,” Ms Merwina Pableo, civil defence chief of Dinalungan town near Dilasag, told AFP.
Rescuers said around 7,000 people were moved from coastal areas as well as flood-prone and landslide-prone areas in Aurora and Isabela, the first two provinces to be struck before Toraji ploughed inland to the mountainous interior of the main island of Luzon.
The government ordered 2,500 villages to be evacuated
In the landfall area of Dilasag, school teacher Glenn Balanag, 31, filmed the onslaught of the howling 130kmh winds, which violently shook coconut trees around his rural home.
“Big trees are falling and we heard the roofs of some houses were damaged. The rain is continuing and a river nearby is rising,” he said in the video.
The national weather agency warned of severe winds and “intense to torrential” rainfall exceeding 200mm across the north of the country, along with a “moderate to high risk of a storm surge” – giant waves up to 3m high on the north coast.
Schools and government offices were shut in areas expected to be hit hardest by the latest typhoon.
Nearly 700 passengers were stranded at ports, according to a coast guard tally on Nov 11, with the weather service warning that “sea travel is risky for all types or tonnage of vessels”.
“All mariners must remain in port or, if under way, seek shelter or safe harbour as soon as possible until winds and waves subside,” it added.
Powerful gusts
Aurora and Isabela officials said the main impact appeared to be downed trees and power pylons that blocked major roads.
“I don’t want to send people out yet to investigate. I do not want them to be caught out by powerful gusts,” said Ms Constante Foronda, Isabela’s disaster response chief.
The typhoon was forecast to blow out to the South China Sea late on Nov 11, the weather service said.
Aurora provincial disaster response chief Elson Egargue told AFP he pushed out crews to clear roads after Toraji left the province in early afternoon.
After Toraji, a tropical depression could also potentially strike the region as early as the night of Nov 14, weather forecaster Veronica Torres told AFP.
Tropical Storm Man-yi, currently east of Guam, may also threaten the Philippines next week, she added.
Toraji came on the heels of three cyclones in less than a month that killed 159 people.
On Nov 7, Typhoon Yinxing slammed into the country’s north coast
Before that, Severe Tropical Storm Trami and Super Typhoon Kong-rey together left 158 people dead, the national disaster agency said, with most of that tally attributed to Trami.
About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the archipelago nation or its surrounding waters each year.
A recent study showed that storms in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly forming closer to coastlines, intensifying more rapidly and lasting longer over land due to climate change. AFP
