A tropical storm was blowing across the Philippines' mountainous north Friday, worsening more than a week of bad weather that has caused at least 25 deaths and prompted evacuations in villages affected by flooding and landslides. (PICS/ AFP)
Updated On: 2025-07-25 01:02 PM IST
Compiled by : Anushree Gaikwad
The storm was Typhoon Co-may when it made landfall Thursday night in the town of Agno in Pangasinan province with maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometres per hour and gusts of up to 165 kph. It was weakening as it advanced northeastward and had sustained winds of 100 kph on Friday morning
Co-may was intensifying seasonal monsoon rains that had swamped a large swath of the country for more than a week
Disaster-response officials have received reports of at least 25 deaths since last weekend, mostly due to flash floods, toppled trees, landslides and electrocution. Eight other people were reported missing
There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries directly caused by Co-may, locally called Emong, the fifth weather disturbance to hit the Philippines since the rainy season started last month. More than a dozen more tropical storms were expected to batter the Southeast Asian country the rest of the year, forecasters said
The government shut down schools in metropolitan Manila for the third day on Friday and suspended classes in 35 provinces in the main northern region of Luzon. At least 77 towns and cities, mostly in Luzon, have declared a state of calamity, a designation that speeds emergency funds and freezes the prices of commodities, including rice
The days of stormy weather have forced 278,000 people to leave their homes for safety in emergency shelters or relatives' homes. Nearly 3,000 houses have been damaged, the government's disaster response agency said
Travel by sea and air has been restricted in northern provinces being pounded by the typhoon
Thousands of army forces, police, coast guard personnel, firefighters and civilian volunteers have been deployed to help rescue people in villages swamped in floodwaters or isolated due to roads blocked by landslides, fallen trees and boulders
The United States, Manila's longtime treaty ally, has pledged to provide military aircraft to airlift food and other aid to remote island provinces and the countryside if the calamity worsens, the Philippines military said
