Fourth typhoon hits Philippines in less than a month

Photo: Agence France-Presse Typhoon “Toraji” made landfall Monday at 8:10 a.m. local time (7:10 p.m. in Quebec) near the town of Dilasag, about 220 kilometers northeast of the capital Manila, the national weather agency said.

Agence France-Presse in Manila

Published at 7:09 Updated at 9:27

• Asia

Thousands of people were taken to shelters, ports closed and roads paralyzed by landslides in the Philippines on Monday, as the country was hit by a fourth typhoon in less than a month.

Torajimade landfall Monday at 8:10 a.m. local time (7:10 p.m. in Quebec) near the town of Dilasag, about 220 kilometers northeast of the capital Manila, the national weather agency said.

“We are being hit by strong winds and heavy rain. Some trees are down and the power has been out since yesterday,” Merwina Pableo, the disaster management official in Dinalungan town near Dilasag, told AFP.

Rescuers said 8,000 people have been displaced from coastal areas and areas prone to flooding or landslides in Aurora, Isabela, Ifugao and Mountain Province, which were first hit by Toraji, which then moved toward mountainous areas of Luzon.

Residents of 2,500 villages were ordered to evacuate on Sunday, but the national disaster management agency had not yet said on Monday how many people had already been taken to safety.

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Typhoon hits mountains on island of Luzon with lesser intensity and was heading toward the provinces of Abra and Ilocos Sur at a speed of 120 km/h before moving away into the South China Sea on Monday night, the national weather service said.

Landslides triggered by heavy rains have buried three key roads in the Cordillera mountains, a civil protection official told AFP.

A ferry ran aground in rough seas off the island of Romblon, but all 156 passengers and 38 crew members were rescued unharmed, the coast guard said.

The national weather agency had warned of strong winds and “intense to torrential” rainfall, with more than 200 millimetres (8 inches) over a 24-hour period in the north of the country.

In Dilasag, Glenn Balanag, a 31-year-old teacher, filmed winds gusting up to 130 km/h. “Big trees are falling and we heard that the roofs of some houses have been damaged. The rain continues and a nearby river is rising,” he told AFP.

Passengers stranded

Authorities have also warned of a “moderate to high risk of storm surges” — giant waves that can reach up to three metres (10 feet) high on the northern coast through Tuesday.

Schools and government offices have been closed in areas expected to be hardest hit.

Nearly 700 passengers were stranded at ports in or near the typhoon’s path, according to a coastguard tally, with the weather service warning that “sea travel is risky for all types and tonnages of ships”.

Elson Egargue, head of disaster response for Aurora province, told AFP he had sent teams to clear roads after the typhoon.

After Toraji, a tropical depression could also hit the region as early as Thursday night, meteorologist Veronica Torres told AFP.

Tropical Storm Man-yi, currently east of Guam, could also threaten the Philippines next week, she added.

Toraji, with winds reaching maximum speeds of 130 km/h, is the fourth typhoon to hit the Philippines in less than a month, following the passage of Trami, Kong-rey and Yinxing, which killed a total of 159 people.

Typhoon Yinxing struck the northern coast of the country on Thursday, killing a 12-year-old girl and damaging buildings.

A few weeks earlier, the violent tropical storm Trami and the super typhoon Kong-reyhad killed 158 people, according to the country's disaster management agency.

About 20 major storms and typhoons hit the archipelago or its surrounding waters each year.

Storms in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly forming closer to shore, intensifying more quickly and lasting longer over land because of climate change, a recent study found.