Packing sustained winds of up to 185 kilometres (115 miles) an hour, Usagi is set to smash onto the main island of Luzon around 0900 GMT or earlier -- the fifth storm to threaten the country in just three weeks.
The brutal wave of weather disturbances has already killed 159 people and prompted the United Nations to request $32.9 million in aid for the worst-affected regions.
The national weather agency said the winds could cause "almost total damage to structures of light materials, especially in highly exposed coastal areas", and "heavy damage" to buildings otherwise considered "low-risk".
"Intense to torrential rain" and potentially "life-threatening" coastal waves of up to three metres (nine feet) were also forecast over two days, with the storm warning raised to the highest signal on a five-step scale.
In Cagayan province, where the storm is expected to make landfall, officials worked in driving rain to remove residents along the coasts and on the banks of already swollen rivers.
"Yesterday it was preemptive evacuations. Now we're doing forced evacuations," local disaster official Edward Gaspar told AFP by phone, adding 1,404 residents were sheltering at a municipal gym.
"There are many more evacuees in nearby villages but we haven't had time to visit and count them," he added.
Cagayan's civil defence chief Rueli Rapsing said he expects local governments to take 40,000 people to shelters, roughly the same number that were preemptively evacuated ahead of Typhoon Yinxing, which struck Cagayan's north coast earlier this month.
More than 5,000 Cagayan residents were still in shelters following the previous storms because the Cagayan river, the country's largest, remained swollen from heavy rain that fell in several provinces upstream.
"We expect this situation to persist over the next few days" as Usagi brings more rain, Rapsing told AFP.
After Usagi, Tropical Storm Man-yi is also forecast to strike the Philippines' population heartland around the capital Manila this weekend.
"Typhoons are overlapping. As soon as communities attempt to recover from the shock, the next tropical storm is already hitting them again," UN Philippines Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Gustavo Gonzalez said.
"In this context, the response capacity gets exhausted and budgets depleted."
Evacuations and call for aid as Typhoon Usagi approaches Philippines
Manila (AFP) Nov 13, 2024 -
The Philippines ordered evacuations Wednesday ahead of Typhoon Usagi's arrival, as the UN's disaster office sought $32.9 million in aid for the country after recent storms killed more than 150 people.
The national weather service said Usagi -- the archipelago's fifth major storm in three weeks -- would likely make landfall Thursday in Cagayan province on the northeast tip of main island Luzon.
Provincial civil defence chief Rueli Rapsing said mayors had been ordered to evacuate residents in vulnerable areas, by force if necessary, as the 120 kilometres (75 miles) an hour typhoon bears down on the country.
"Under (emergency protocols), all the mayors must implement the forced evacuation, especially for susceptible areas," he told AFP, adding as many as 40,000 people in the province lived in hazard-prone areas.
The area is set to be soaked in "intense to torrential" rain on Thursday and Friday, which can trigger floods and landslides with the ground still sodden from recent downpours, state weather forecaster Christopher Perez told reporters.
He urged residents of coastal areas to move inland due to the threat of storm surges and giant coastal waves up to three metres (nine feet) high, with shipping also facing the peril of 8-10 metre waves.
A sixth tropical storm, Man-yi, is expected to strengthen into a typhoon before hitting the centre of the country as early as Friday, Perez said.
With more than 700,000 people forced out of their homes, the successive storms have taken a toll on the resources of both the government and local households, the UN said late Tuesday.
About 210,000 of those most affected by recent flooding need support for "critical lifesaving and protection efforts over the next three months", the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.
"Typhoons are overlapping. As soon as communities attempt to recover from the shock, the next tropical storm is already hitting them again," UN Philippines Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Gustavo Gonzalez said.
"In this context, the response capacity gets exhausted and budgets depleted."
The initiative "will help us mobilise the capacities and resources of the humanitarian community to better support government institutions at national, regional and local levels," Gonzalez added.
More than 28,000 people displaced by recent storms are still living in evacuation centres operated by local governments, the country's civil defence office said in its latest tally.
Government crews were still working to restore downed power and communication lines and clearing debris from roads.
About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the archipelago nation or its surrounding waters each year, killing scores of people and keeping millions in enduring poverty.
A recent study showed that storms in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly forming closer to coastlines, intensifying more rapidly and lasting longer over land due to climate change.
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