MANILA: The Philippines braced on Wednesday for the possible impact of another powerful typhoon sweeping the country’s north, days after a storm wreaked havoc on its most populous island, leaving at least 139 people dead and dozens missing.
Kong-rey — locally known as Leon — reached super-typhoon strength on Wednesday and was expected to bring strong winds and heavy rainfall as it skirted the northernmost province of Batanes, said the weather bureau, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.
The PAGASA also warned of a moderate-to-high risk of “life-threatening coastal flooding due to storm surge with peak heights exceeding 3.0 meters.”
This could be triggered by Kong-rey in low-lying coasts of Batanes and the nearby Babuyan cluster of islands, home to some combined 20,000 people.
Batanes was placed under Signal No. 4, which means that “the situation is potentially very destructive to the community.”
“Forced and mandatory evacuations in areas identified with high risk (are) enforced as the country prepares for the anticipated adverse weather condition brought by ‘Leon,’” the Department of Defense said in a statement.
The super-typhoon is passing near the Philippines before making landfall along Taiwan’s eastern coast on Thursday.
The 12th cyclone to hit the Philippines this year was approaching days after Tropical Storm Trami swept across the country’s northeast, inundating entire towns with severe flooding and triggering landslides.
Most of the damage was recorded in Luzon, the Philippines’ largest and most populous island.
Towns and cities in the Bicol region, southern Luzon, were still under water on Wednesday, as over 300,000 people displaced last week remained in emergency shelters, authorities said.
It was the deadliest tropical cyclone to hit the Philippines in 2024.
The Southeast Asian nation is the country most at risk from natural disasters, according to the 2024 World Risk Report.
Millions of Filipinos are affected by storms and typhoons every year, which are increasingly more unpredictable and extreme due to climate change.
