Thousands flee as Storm Trami churns toward the Philippines
Tropical Storm Trami has strengthened as it tracks toward the main island of the Philippines, forcing more than 3,000 people to evacuate as heavy rain flooded some areas south of Manila.
Top sustained winds for Trami – known locally as Kristine – intensified to 47 mph, according to the Philippines’ weather agency, up from 65 kilometers. The storm is forecast to strengthen further before crossing the Luzon coast late Wednesday, or early Thursday morning.
Trami has strong gale-force winds that extend outward up to 760 kilometers, and the storm is about 390 kilometers east of Daet, the capital of Camarines Norte. Almost the entire Luzon island and some central provinces have been placed under a cyclone warning.
The Bicol River basin in southern Luzon is currently seeing widespread and severe flooding, according to the weather bureau, which expects Trami to develop into a severe tropical storm before making landfall.
Over 3,200 people have so far evacuated from Eastern Samar, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, and Masbate, regional civil directors for Eastern Visayas and Bicol told reporters during an online briefing.
Trami is forecast to hit the Cagayan Valley, a major region of rice production that accounts for nearly one-sixth of the nation’s total output. The storm comes in the middle of the country’s second annual rice planting season, just weeks after Typhoon Yagi wiped out nearly 49,000 tons of rice crops, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
The storm is expected to weaken after coming ashore as it interacts with the Cordillera mountain range of northern Luzon, according to the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center. High sea-surface temperatures and low-to-moderate vertical wind shear will help the system re-intensify once it tracks over the sea to the west of the Philippines, the center said.
The Philippines’ weather agency expects Trami to strengthen into a typhoon once it emerges over the South China Sea. From there, it could track toward the central region of Vietnam, though the Hong Kong Observatory sees a higher chance that the storm will edge toward China’s Hainan Island.
The Philippines is one of the countries most exposed to more extreme weather events caused by climate change, with an average of 20 typhoons hitting the nation every year.