AT least 25 people have been killed and nearly 300,000 evacuated as storms batter the Philippines.
A new tropical storm struck on Thursday night, unleashing winds up to 74 miles per hour and triggering devastating floods and landslides.
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Typhoon Co-may struck the mountainous northern town of Agno, in Pangasinan province, as it swept through the Philippines on Thursday night.
At least 25 people have died from flash floods, landslides and electrocution since last weekend, officials say, with eight more reported missing.
Seasonal monsoon rains have pounded a vast stretch of the country for over a week.
And more than a dozen tropical storms are forecast to hit the Southeast Asian country before the end of the year.
Schools in the capital, Manila, were closed on Friday for the third day in a row.
Classes were also suspended in 35 provinces across Luzon – the northern part of the country – where most of the 80 towns and cities that have declared a state of calamity are located.
278,000 people have been forced to seek refuge in emergency shelters or with relatives.
Nearly 3,000 homes have been damaged, according to the government’s disaster response agency.
Thousands of troops, police officers, coast guards, firefighters and volunteers have been rushed in to rescue stranded residents.
The US has pledged to provide military aircraft to help transport food and other aid if weather conditions worsen.
Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. visited emergency shelters in Rizal province on Thursday to help distribute food.
He called an emergency meeting with disaster-response chiefs, warning that both the government and public must brace for more frequent and unpredictable natural disasters thanks to climate change.
The Philippines faces about 20 typhoons and storms every year – most hitting the poorest regions of the country.
By Friday afternoon, the typhoon had moved northeast and weakened slightly.
It comes as flash floods tore through central Texas in early July, killing 135 people in a tragedy that shook Texas to its core.
Among the victims were children as young as eight, attending a summer camp.
At least 27 campers and members of staff from Camp Mystic died.
The floods claimed more lives than Hurricane Harvey – the Category 4 storm that devastated Texas in 2017 and killed 107 people.
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