The new weather episode comes as the country struggles to recover from the consequences of four previous typhoons. Typhoon Usagi hit the northern Philippines on Thursday, November 14, as authorities rushed to evacuate thousands of residents from coastal areas.
It made landfall in the town of Baggao, in the province of Cagayan (north of the island of Luzon), at 1:30 p.m. local time (6:30 a.m. in Paris), with winds of 175 km/h, the National reported. Meteorological Service. The weather agency, which initially issued a maximum storm warning level on a scale of five, lowered it to the second level when the typhoon made landfall.
He said the winds could cause “Almost total damage to structures made of light materials, especially in very exposed coastal areas” AND “major damage” to buildings considered “low risk”. Of the “Heavy to torrential rains” and coastal waves that can reach up to three meters and can “endanger life” They are also planned for the next two days.
President Ferdinand Marcos, who visited areas affected by the storm to distribute financial aid of 5,000 to 10,000 pesos (between 80 and 160 euros) per family, urged residents to comply with evacuation orders. “We know it is difficult to leave home and belongings, but shelter can save lives”he told residents of the island of Mindoro, according to an official transcript of his speech.
“While we cannot prevent typhoons from hitting the country, we can take steps to reduce their impact”the president continued, calling for better infrastructure to address the worsening effects of storms, which he attributes to climate change.
Forced evacuations
In Cagayan province on the northern island of Luzon, authorities worked in torrential rain Thursday to evacuate residents along the coasts and on the banks of already swollen rivers. “Yesterday was about preventive evacuations. “Now we are carrying out forced evacuations”Edward Gaspar, local disaster official, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) by telephone a few hours before the hurricane arrived.
According to Rueli Rapsing, a local civil protection official, about 40,000 people are expected to be sheltered, about the same number of people evacuated as a preventive measure before Typhoon Yinxing hit the northern coast of Cagayan earlier this month.
The official said more than 5,000 residents of the province were still in shelters after four storms that hit the Philippines in the past three weeks. Following Usagi, Tropical Storm Man-yi is also expected to hit the capital Manila region further south this weekend.
700,000 people remain homeless
“Typhoons overlap. As soon as people try to recover from the shock, the next tropical storm hits them again.”lamented Gustavo González, resident coordinator of the United Nations (UN) in the Philippines. According to a United Nations assessment of the four storms since mid-October (Trami, Kong-rey, Yinxing, Toraji), 207,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed and nearly 700,000 people are seeking temporary shelter.
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The storms also destroyed thousands of hectares of agricultural land and persistent flooding risks delaying replanting efforts and worsening food supply problems, the report added.
The series of climate disasters killed 159 people, and the United Nations Office for Disaster Reduction requested $32.9 million in aid for 210,000 of the most affected survivors.
About twenty large storms and typhoons hit the archipelago or its surrounding waters every year. Storms in the Asia-Pacific region are forming closer to the coast, intensifying faster and lasting longer on land due to climate change, a new study shows.
