2024-10-30 07:38:00
MANILA (AP) — Residents of northern Philippines provinces were forced to evacuate on Wednesday as a powerful typhoon approached the country and emergency shelters for displaced people were overcrowded following a recent storm that left at least 182 people dead or missing.
Latest reports indicate that Typhoon Kangrui is located 350 kilometers (217 miles) east of Cagayan, Norte, with sustained winds of up to 185 km/h (115 mph) and gusts of up to 230 km/h (143 mph). Forecasters said rough seas were likely to intensify further.
The system is moving northwest and is expected to pass near the northernmost province of Batanes in the Philippines before hitting southeastern Taiwan on Thursday.
“We are still recovering from the last two typhoons and storms and now here we are again,” Batanes Governor Marilou Cayco told The Associated Press.
“We will now oversee the mandatory evacuation of people, especially those whose homes were severely damaged in the last storm,” Kayko said.
Elsewhere in the northern Philippines, more than 300,000 people displaced by Tropical Storm Trami last week remain in emergency shelters as a new typhoon approaches, Civil Defense Office officials said.
Forecasters warned that the low-lying coast of Batanes and the nearby Babuyan Islands could trigger “life-threatening storm surges of up to 2 to 3 meters (6.5 to 9.8 feet).”
All ships and cargo vessels are advised to remain in ports and at sea seeking shelter or safe harbor as soon as possible until the storm calms down.
Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, who is overseeing disaster relief efforts, ordered mandatory evacuations of people in high-risk areas threatened by Kangre (known as Leon in the Philippines).
“We remain committed to zero casualties in disasters, so we strongly urge the public to adhere to our protocols,” Teodoro said.
While Kangray is expected to move away from the northern Philippines, a wide band of rain more than 600 kilometers (373 miles) wide could hit the entire northern main region of Luzon, the country’s most populous island, he said.
Tropical Storm Telami left the northern Philippines on Friday, killing at least 145 people and leaving 37 missing, mainly causing massive flooding and landslides that affected more than 7 million people in nearly 11,000 villages, the agency said. Most are rural.
More than 111,000 homes were damaged, many inundated by flooding and rising rivers. Trami dumped two months’ worth of rain in some areas in just 24 hours, causing flash floods that swept away cars and trapped people on their rooftops.
At the height of last week’s attacks, officials in the worst-hit Bicol region, southeast of the capital Manila, made frantic calls for more rescue boats to rescue thousands of villagers trapped in rising floods.
About 20 typhoons and storms hit the disaster-prone Philippines every year. In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful tropical cyclones the world has ever seen, left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, flattened entire villages, stranded several cargo ships inland, and destroyed homes and buildings in central areas. resident.
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This story was translated from English by AP editors with the help of generated artificial intelligence tools.
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