‘Shock of our lives’: Philippines reels as five major storms strike in three weeks | Philippines

Typhoon Yinxing tore off a quarter of Diana Moraleda’s tiled roof in Tuguegaro City in northern Philippines last week. The gaping hole was still there when Typhoon Toraji brought rains over the weekend and when Typhoon Usagi made landfall late on Thursday.

“It’s difficult because many houses were devastated by [Yinxing]. The carpenters themselves are still fixing their own homes. It’s hard to find workers,” Moraleda said.

Usagi is the fifth major storm to hit the Philippines in just three weeks, with a sixth forecast for this weekend. At least 160 people have been killed and nine million displaced, while the unusual frequency has left people already struggling with the aftermath of previous heavy rains and flooding little time to prepare for the next strike.

Moraleda said it was fortunate that the hole was above a store room and not a bedroom. But water has dripped from the ceiling, damaging their pharmacy on the ground floor.

The damage to other homes was worse, she said. And the galvanised iron roof of a university was blown off and landed on a nearby church.

People in Cagayan province, of which Tuguegaro is the capital, are used to typhoons, but Moraleda said they had not expected Yinxing’s onslaught. Usagi has made them nervous because it is on the same track and is also a category 4.

“This is our fifth storm in three weeks. We have no time to repair between the storms,” Moraleda said. Last month, typhoon Kong-rey and typhoon Trami – the deadliest of all the storms – also battered the province.

‘I’m feeling a little helpless here’

The Philippines can be struck by 20 typhoons a year. Human-caused climate breakdown has increased the occurrence of the most intense and destructive tropical cyclones (though the overall number per year has not changed globally). This is because warming oceans provide more energy, producing stronger storms.

Each time, hundreds of thousands of residents are affected, many of whom might require evacuation. Deaths and injuries are reported from drowning, electrocution, floods, landslides, and maritime incidents among others.

Houses and government infrastructure such as roads, airports, and seaports, as well as crops and livestock are damaged. Power, water supplies and communication lines are cut. Relief efforts are costly, and school classes are suspended.

While Usagi made landfall in Cagayan, Tropical Cyclone Manyi was also approaching the Philippines late on Thursday. It was projected to hit hundreds of kilometres to the south, in the Bicol region in Luzon, which bore the brunt of Trami last month.

Trami unleashed torrents of rain in late October, submerging parts of the region.

Raffy Magno and his family lost nearly everything they owned when flood waters reached the second storey of their home in Bicol’s Naga City. Miraculously, their refrigerator sprang back to life once dried, but everything else, including appliances, furniture, clothing, and important documents, was destroyed.

“It was the shock of our lives. While we are so used to typhoons, even to floods, we never really expected the extent of the damage,” Magno said.

The typhoon killed 17 people in Bicol but there are fears Trami’s death toll may still rise. Just this week, the body of a student who went missing during the typhoon was found.

“When we realised that [Manyi] is coming, I told my family that this time we will need to bring the refrigerator to the second floor,” said Magno.

Even the Philippines’ president, Ferdinand Marcos, has admitted feeling overwhelmed by the challenges of extreme weather. A clip has gone viral of the president saying “I’m feeling a little helpless here” after finding out that government relief could not cross flooded highways.

“We hope [Manyi] will not be as bad. That is what we are praying for,” said Magno.

‘The climate crisis is here’

In Metro Manila, Alvin Sevilla is worried about Manyi, too. He lives in the flood-prone city of Malabon and based on past experiences he knows that typhoons that make landfall in Bicol usually hit the capital.

Mitzi Jonelle Tan, a Filipino climate justice activist, says climate change is undeniable.

“If you still do not think that climate change exists, look to your neighbours; look to your countries. It’s happening across the world,” she said.

The Philippines is not a major source of the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, but as an archipelago it is among the most vulnerable in the world to its effects.

Tan says the typhoons in the Philippines underscore the important work at the Cop29 global climate summit that started this week in Azerbaijan.

“The Philippines is there. They need to be championing the call for loss and damage funds from the global north countries in the form of grants not loans,” Tan said.

Typhoons drain government coffers with their cycle of destruction and rebuilding, and many provinces in the usual path of typhoons, like Bicol, are also among the poorest.

Often, the national government steps in. Social welfare secretary Rex Gatchalian said the government had dispatched almost 1.5m family food packs over 14 days in Bicol after Trami alone and his department was “responding as we speak” to Usagi while preparing for Manyi.

“Cash is not a problem … The challenge is to sustain this because obviously there is human fatigue. I spoke to our warehouse people and they say the people are also getting tired,” Gatchalian said.

Beyond relief operations, Tan said the government should enact policies that mitigate the impact of climate change and protect vulnerable people.

She called on the Philippines’ government to stop environmentally destructive projects such as large-scale mining and quarrying, to fund research on adaptation specific to the Philippines and to transition to renewable energy while making sure that those employed by the fossil fuel industry are given alternative livelihoods.

Those policies are long overdue, she said. “Typhoons with short intervals will continue to happen because the climate crisis is here. But the impacts don’t have to be as devastating as it is now every single time.”