A fifth major storm in three weeks hit the northeastern Philippines on Thursday, prompting new large-scale evacuations and a UN appeal for funds to help the government address the plight of rural residents.
At least 1,400 people have been evacuated from coastal areas as well as flood and landslide-prone areas of Dinalungan and the nearby municipality of Baler, according to Donald Allan Tay, spokesman for the disaster management headquarters.
In total, the Philippine government ordered the evacuation of 2,500 villages on Sunday, although the national disaster management office did not have figures on the total number of evacuees. Mervina Pableo, civil defence chief of Dinalungan town near Dilasag, said:
“We have been hit by strong winds and heavy rains. Some trees are falling and electricity has been cut off since yesterday. We can’t go out and do damage assessment yet.”
The successive storms have drained the resources of both the government and local households, the UN said late Tuesday. Some 210,000 people most affected by the recent flooding need support for “critical life-saving and protection efforts over the next three months,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement. UN Philippines Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Gustavo Gonzalez said:
“Typhoons are overlapping. As soon as communities attempt to recover from the shock, the next tropical storm is already hitting them again. In this context, the response capacity gets exhausted and budgets depleted.”
The typhoon is approaching
The Meteorological Service said the Typhoon Usagi, with maximum wind speeds of 130 km/h, was moving rapidly to the northwest and was forecast to head into the South China Sea on on Thursday evening, passing through the mountainous terrain of the main Philippine island of Luzon.
Schools and government offices have been closed in areas expected to be hardest hit by the latest typhoon.
The National Meteorological Agency warned of strong winds and heavy rain 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.
