At least one person died as powerful typhoon Doksuri lashed the coastline of the northern Philippines with gale-force winds and torrential rain yesterday, bursting banks of rivers and leaving thousands without electricity.
Rain pounded coastal communities, including isolated villages tucked away in tropical forests. Many people had already been moved to safer areas ahead of the storm, which brought winds of up to 175 kilometres per hour (108 miles per hour).
For all latest news, follow The My News’s Google News channel. “We’re being battered here,” Manuel Mamba, governor of the northern corn-growing Cagayan province, told Reuters.
The storm, labelled as a super typhoon by China’s Meteorological Administration, is nearly 900 km (560 miles) across and is expected to sustain strength as it continues towards Taiwan and the Chinese mainland.
China’s weather agency has already raised its storm alert to the second-highest tier and the manufacturing hub of Guangdong province has warned of the worst storm in a decade.
Doksuri is expected to make landfall in China on Friday, the second typhoon to land in under two weeks after Talim slammed into Guangdong on July 17.
Throughout July, record temperatures have caused havoc across the globe, sparking wildfires in the US and the Mediterranean. Scientists say global warming will also make storms wetter, windier and more violent.
In the Philippines, at least one person drowned in the province of Rizal, the national disaster agency said.
More than 4,000 passengers were stranded at ports across the country after sea travel was suspended, the Philippine coast guard said.
The storm’s outer rain bands were expected to hit southern Taiwan later yesterday, its Central Weather Bureau said.
Taiwanese authorities issued warnings for several counties and cities in the south including the major port city of Kaohsiung.