The Philippines raised its highest storm alert, evacuating thousands of people as Super Typhoon Usagi barrelled towards already disaster-ravaged northern part of the country with the force of a Category 4 storm.
Packing sustained winds of up to 180 km an hour, Usagi is set to make landfall in the north of Luzon, the most populous island in the Philippines later in the day today. It is the fifth major storm to hit the country in the past three weeks. The authorities have warned that the storm could cause widespread flooding and landslides in the north of the country.
The brutal wave of weather disturbances has already killed over 100 people and caused widespread destruction. This week, four tropical storms churned at once in and around the South China Sea and the North Pacific, the first time that had happened in the region in November since records began.
