Philippines braces for another typhoon
MANILA — Philippine authorities Sunday put rescue teams on standby and stockpiled emergency supplies as the country braced for Typhoon Lupit in the wake of two storms which left more than 900 people dead.
The government weather service said the outer bands of the latest typhoon, now packing winds of up to 175 kilometres (109 miles) an hour, could affect the north of the main island of Luzon late Wednesday.
The eye of the storm stayed nearly stationary for a few hours Sunday, some 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) off Luzon's east coast, but could clip the island's extreme north later in the week, it added.
"Those in critical areas should be evacuated now that there is still time," weather service chief Prisco Nilo told a news conference.
"It would be more difficult to rescue people in the middle of a typhoon," he added.
Colonel Ernesto Torres, spokesman for the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), said people living in coastal areas, river banks, mountain slopes "and other landslide-prone areas should evacuate now."
He said President Gloria Arroyo has ordered the police to guard abandoned homes in the path of the typhoon, to protect them from looters.
"Some are hesitant to leave their homes because they could be broken into," Torres said.
Since Friday, Torres said, government agencies had been "prepositioning relief goods" in the sparsely populated Batan island group near Taiwan, the northern city of Tuguegarao and key population centres in the Cordillera range, which were hard hit by landslides during the previous tropical storms.
Government agencies are also under orders to "preposition rescue personnel and equipment in these identified areas."
The weather service warned that seven dams in northern Luzon had been releasing water in anticipation of heavy rains brought by Typhoon Lupit.
Widespread flooding had killed 380 people and displaced 4.34 million others in and around Manila on September 26 as Tropical Storm Ketsana brought record rainfall to the region, the NDCC said in an updated toll.
Tropical Storm Parma hit northern Luzon a week later and hovered over the region for a week, triggering landslides and floods that left 438 people dead and displaced 3.8 million others, it added.
About 266,000 people remain in crowded evacuation camps more than two weeks later, and a bacteria-borne disease called leptospirosis has killed another 89 people in flooded areas since then, the health department said.
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The Philippines has stockpiled emergency supplies and put rescue teams on a standby in preparation for Typhoon Lupit, which is expected to hit the country by Wednesday. It comes only weeks after several other typhoons, which killed almost a thousand people and displaced millions.

The government weather service announced that the outer areas of the storm could affect , the country's main island, and have winds up to 175 kilometres per hour.

Lupit's eye remained in the same area for several hours on Sunday, about 1,000 kilometres from the eastern shores of Luzon; however, meteorologists predict the storm could move closer to the Philippines.

A weather service chief said that areas vulnerable to flooding should be evacuated. "Those in critical areas should be evacuated now that there is still time. It would be more difficult to rescue people in the middle of a typhoon," said Prisco Nilo.