It is the fourth to hit the country in three weeks
At least 8,000 people in 2,500 villages have been evacuated in the Philippines as the fourth typhoon hit the country in three weeks.
Typhoon Toraji, also known as Nika – international media report – is passing westward over the island of Luzon, with winds equivalent to a category 1 hurricane. Toraji follows cyclones Trami, Kong-rey and Yinxing, which together caused the death of 159 people and over 700,000 displaced people.
The Philippines is no stranger to tropical cyclones, with about 20 hitting the nation each year, but it is unusual for the same region to experience so many in such a short period of time, the newspaper wrote. The authorities’ main concern now is the enormous amount of rainfall in recent weeks, with Toraji’s torrential rains hitting saturated soil and already full waterways. The 2,500 villages were evacuated largely due to the extreme risk of landslides, while dams are making controlled releases of water in an attempt to counter the risk of flooding.
And the north of the country could have to deal with another typhoon during the week. A new tropical depression, in fact, formed on Saturday in the Philippine Sea and is expected to turn into a storm moving northwest, following a path very similar to that of Toraji. The Japan Meteorological Agency has already warned that this cyclone, which will be named Usagi, has the potential to reach strong intensity and forecast models suggest it could make landfall in the northern Philippines on Thursday or Friday.
