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New typhoon threatens Philippines and Saipan, Taiwan braces for a hit
Filipinos are bracing for their second typhoon in eight days, although the storm has weakened just hours before it is due to hit land.
- Agencies
- Published: 08:16 October 3, 2009
Manila: Filipinos are bracing for their second typhoon in eight days, although the storm has weakened just hours before it is due to hit land.
Better news for the Philippines was bad news for Taiwan, which issued a storm warning and began evacuating villages in the south as Typhoon Parma headed more sharply north toward the island.
Parma is nevertheless bringing heavy rain across the Philippines' main island of Luzon on Saturday including many areas still recovering from a September 26 storm that inundated large parts of Manila and killed almost 300 people.
Read special coverage on the Philippine floods
But the storm was pushed farther north overnight on Friday, and Manila was no longer at risk of a new deluge, said chief government forecaster Nathaniel Cruz.
In Saipan, residents of the Northern Mariana Islands, east of the Philippines, braced themselves on Saturday as another typhoon, Melor, churned across the Western Pacific.
Most businesses shut on Saturday and Saipan residents who do not live in concrete homes have moved to typhoon shelters, said Charles Reyes, Northern Marianas Governor Benigno Fitial's press secretary.
The storm was expected to make its closest approach to Saipan pm Saturday night, the weather service said.
Saipan, Tinian and Agrihan were forecast to take the brunt of the storm, with the US National Weather Service saying damaging winds could knock down trees, triggering power outages.
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