Philippines on high alert as super typhoon approaches – News

The Philippines raised its highest storm alert on Thursday and evacuated thousands of people as Super Typhoon Usagi barreled towards the already disaster-stricken north.

With sustained winds of up to 180 kilometers per hour, Usagi is poised to batter the main island of Luzon in the afternoon local time – the fifth storm to threaten the country in just three weeks.

The brutal wave of weather has already killed 159 people and prompted the UN to request $32.9 million in aid for the worst-hit regions.

The national weather agency said the winds could cause “near total damage to structures made of light materials, especially in highly exposed coastal areas,” and “heavy damage” to buildings otherwise considered “low risk.”

‘Intense to heavy rain’ and potentially ‘life-threatening’ coastal waves of up to three meters were also forecast for two days, with the gale warning raised to the highest signal on a five-step scale.

“Evacuations are underway” in coastal and low-lying areas of Cagayan province, civil defense chief Rueli Rapsing said. AFP by telephone.

He expects local governments to move 40,000 people into shelters, about the same number that were preemptively evacuated in the run-up to Typhoon Yinxing, which hit Cagayan’s northern coast earlier this month.

He said more than 5,000 Cagayan residents were still in shelters after the previous storms.

This was because the Cagayan River, the country’s largest, remained swollen due to heavy rains that fell in several provinces upstream, flooding communities downstream.

“We expect this situation to continue in the coming days” as Usagi brings more rain, Rapsing said.

Manila will also be affected

After Usagi, Tropical Storm Man-yi is also expected to hit the heartland of the Filipino population around the capital Manila this weekend.

“Typhoons overlap. As soon as communities try to recover from the shock, the next tropical storm hits them again,” said Gustavo Gonzalez, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for the Philippines.