By admin 
The weather bureau is warning of ‘life-threatening’ tidal waves in the coastal area as a new tropical storm forms in the Pacific Ocean.
The Philippines has raised its highest storm alert and evacuated thousands of people as they prepare for Super Typhoon Usagi, the fifth storm to hit the country in three weeks.
With sustained winds of up to 185 km/h (115 mph), Usagi is expected to make landfall in the already storm-lashed northern part of the main island of Luzon on Thursday, according to the national weather bureau.
“A landfall at or near super typhoon intensity is likely,” the agency PAGASA said in its latest bulletin, adding that winds could reach 230 km/h (143 mph). Luzon is the country’s most populous agricultural region.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thursday called on residents of the affected areas to “heed the warnings” of local authorities.
“To those who have been ordered to evacuate, please do so for your own safety,” he said.
A series of storms has already killed 159 people in recent weeks and prompted the United Nations to request $32.9 million in aid for the worst-hit regions.
The national weather agency warned that 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 possibly ‘life-threatening’ coastal waves of up to 3 meters (9 feet) were also forecast for two days, with the storm warning raised to the highest level on a five-step scale.
The weather bureau called on all ships to remain in port or take shelter immediately.
In northern Cagayan province, where the super typhoon is expected to make landfall, officials worked in the rain to relocate residents along the coasts and on the banks of already swollen rivers.
“Yesterday they were preventive evacuations. Now we are doing forced evacuations,” local disaster official Edward Gaspar told the AFP news agency by phone, adding that 1,404 residents were taking shelter in a municipal gym.
“There are many more evacuees in nearby villages, but we have not had time to visit and count them,” he said.
Cagayan Civil Defense chief Rueli Rapsing said he expects local governments to move 40,000 people to shelters, about the same number who were preemptively evacuated before Typhoon Yinxing, which hit Cagayan’s northern coast earlier this month.
More than 5,000 Cagayan residents were still in shelters after the earlier storms, while the Cagayan River, the country’s largest, remained swollen due to heavy rains that fell in several provinces upstream.
After Usagi, Tropical Storm Man-yi is also expected to hit around the capital Manila this weekend.
About 20 major storms and typhoons hit the country and surrounding waters every year, causing flooding that kills dozens of people and leaves millions in permanent poverty.
Researchers say storms in the Asia-Pacific region are forming closer to the coastline, intensifying faster and lasting longer over land due to climate change.
The Philippines is also frequently hit by earthquakes and has more than a dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world.
Rescue workers transport stranded residents from their flooded homes in Isabela province on November 12, 2024, a day after Typhoon Toraji struck. The Philippines has issued new weather warnings as the fifth major storm in three weeks hits the archipelago (Villamor Visaya/AFP)