Philippines | Typhoon Usagi causes significant damage

(Manila) The typhoon Usagi submerged rural villages, knocked out power and displaced thousands before moving Friday away from the northern Philippines, which has been hit by five major storms in less than a month.

A new storm in the Pacific could develop into a powerful typhoon before hitting the Philippine archipelago on Sunday, according to state meteorologists.

There were no immediate reports of casualties following the assault caused by Usagiwhich was blowing towards southern Taiwan on Friday.

In Cagayan province, at the northern tip of the main Luzon region, a concrete bridge connecting two towns partially collapsed Thursday after logs carried by the river’s devastating currents crushed it. Several other bridges have been swallowed by floodwaters and are unusable, provincial officials said.

The typhoon Usagi made landfall in the northeastern Philippines on Thursday, just two days after the last typhoon hit, Torajiwhich triggered floods and forced more than 82,500 people to flee their homes in the northern provinces.

Many displaced people were still in emergency shelters when the typhoon Usagi hit, according to welfare officials, who scrambled to transport large quantities of food parcels and other aid to more than 300 evacuation centers as successive storms and typhoons battered the region.

The government has struggled to cope with the impact of multiple storms, which have killed at least 160 people, displaced more than 9 million others and devastated farmland and infrastructure, mainly in Luzon.

The administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has spent more than 1 billion pesos (US$17 million) on food and other aid for hundreds of thousands of storm victims, the assistant secretary of state said. social assistance Irene Dumlao.

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, who is overseeing disaster response efforts, has sought help from neighboring countries including Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei to provide additional planes to transport food, water and other aid to villages isolated by storms. The United States, Manila’s long-time treaty ally, has deployed cargo planes with food and other aid.

The United Nations humanitarian team in the Philippines said it was raising $32.9 million to help the government provide assistance to about 210,000 people in critical need of aid and protection, especially women, children and people with disabilities, over the next three months.

“The Philippines is facing an exceptionally challenging tropical cyclone season, with successive cyclones reaching unprecedented locations and scales,” the UN team said in its contingency plan. “Local authorities, who are often affected themselves, are overwhelmed as they simultaneously respond to the crisis and coordinate rescue efforts for affected families. »

The Philippines is hit by about 20 typhoons and tropical storms every year. The Philippines is often hit by earthquakes and has more than a dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the countries most prone to natural disasters.

In 2013, the typhoon Haiyanone of the most violent tropical cyclones on record, left more than 7,300 dead or missing, razed entire villages and caused the grounding of ships and the destruction of homes in the central Philippines.