At least three people were injured and thousands displaced in the Philippines as Tropical Storm Ma-on slammed into the north of the country, officials said on Wednesday.
Three people were injured when they were hit by falling trees in Cagayan province, in the north of the island of Luzon, the largest and most populous in the archipelago, and were taken to hospitals, a security official said.
Rueli Rapsing added that more than seven thousand people were evacuated from the villages that province, while authorities closed schools and government departments in Manila and in regions where flooding and landslides could occur.
The closure of schools came after millions of primary and secondary school students returned this Monday to face-to-face classes, canceled in the last two years in the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some hard-hit regions are still reeling from the devastation caused by a massive earthquake last month, raising concerns that mountain slopes would be more susceptible to landslides in a country battered by some 20 tropical storms a year. they said.
the man slightly weakened after hitting the northern mountainous provinces, having left land overnight, with constant winds of 95 kilometers per hour (km/h) and gusts of up to 115 km/h. The storm made landfall Tuesday morning in the town of Maconacon, in Isabela province, forecasters said.
The storm could intensify offshore as it heads toward southern China, they said.
Macau, currently on Ma-on’s forecast track, is preparing to issue the warning signal for Tropical Storm 3 at 14:00 (07:00 in Lisbon). The yellow alert for possible flooding was already issued at 11:00 a.m. (04:00 a.m. in Lisbon).
The Macau Meteorological and Geophysical Services (SMG) indicated a high possibility of raising signal 8 tonight.
The tropical storm warning scale is made up of signals 1, 3, 8, 9 and 10, whose emission depends on the proximity of the storm and the intensity of the winds.
Since 2017, three typhoons forced the authorities to issue the highest alert, with the last one (Figs) reaching Macau in August 2020.
In September 2018, Mangkhut caused 40 injuries and severe flooding in the territory.
A year earlier, Typhoon Hato (later called Yamaneko by local authorities), considered the worst in more than 50 years to hit the territory, caused 10 deaths and 240 injuries.
Source: Observadora
