Repeat: Philippines to be hit with back-to-back typhoons

September 30, 2011 – MANILA – Nalgae formed as a tropical depression over the western Pacific Ocean on Tuesday (27 September). By late on Thursday, it had strengthened into a typhoon. On Thursday, the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) reported that Nalgae had maximum sustained winds of 70 knots (130 kilometers per hour) and gusts up to 85 knots (155 kilometers per hour). The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired the above natural-color image of Nalgae on September 29, 2011. Although the storm lacks a distinct eye, it has the spiral shape characteristic of strong storms. As of early Friday, Nalgae was located less than 500 nautical mileseast-northeast of Manila, Philippines. The JTWC forecast that Nalgae would continue moving westward, in the direction of the Philippines and mainland China. Typhoon Nesat took a similar path just days earlier. –IWO

Philippine authorities warned Friday that at least a million people living in flooded villages and farmland were set to be pounded by more devastating rain from a second typhoon. Typhoon Nesat pummeled the Philippines’ main island of Luzon on Tuesday, killing at least 43 people and leaving 30 others missing as it dumped the biggest single-day volume of rain on the disaster-weary country this year. Large areas of Luzon remain flooded with some villages enduring water nearly two stories high, and the government said another typhoon was expected to dump just as much rain as Nesat over the same areas this weekend. “You must help us warn these people to move to higher ground,” National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management chief Benito Ramos told AFP. “The problem is, the floodwaters from Nesat have not ebbed. Water-soaked soil is prone to landslides and flash floods.” The second typhoon, named Nalgae, was due to hit Luzon, home to 48 million people, on Saturday night with peak winds of 130 kilometers (80 miles) an hour, the state weather service said. Ramos said churches, schools and gymnasiums were being prepared for people to seek refuge. –Terra Daily