# Typhoon Usagi forces mass evacuations in northern Philippines

*Event date: 2024-11-14*

Thousands of people in the northern Philippines were ordered to leave their homes as Typhoon Usagi made landfall in Cagayan province, underscoring another punishing stretch in an already severe storm season.

DW reported that more than 24,000 people were evacuated from Cagayan province in the island nation’s northern Luzon region. The storm, known locally as Ofel, hit the coastal town of Baggao with winds of up to 175 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 240 kph.

The evacuations came as officials tried to protect residents from flooding, storm surge and river overflows. Rueli Rapsing, head of the Cagayan disaster relief office, told DW that authorities expected the Cagayan River to swell again because of rainfall brought by Usagi. That warning was especially serious because many evacuees had already been displaced by earlier storms in October.

The Philippines had already endured a brutal run of weather. DW said Typhoons Trami and Kong-rey had killed about 160 people and devastated farmland and infrastructure before Usagi arrived. The country was also facing a sixth storm, Man-yi, which forecasters expected to follow later in the week. In response, authorities warned against non-essential travel in central and northern areas and urged ships to remain in port or seek shelter.

The storm threat extended beyond wind damage. The Philippine weather agency warned of tidal surges of up to three meters in coastal areas and island clusters, which could threaten low-lying communities even after the initial landfall passed. The repeated landfalls highlighted how difficult it has become for local governments to manage back-to-back disasters with limited recovery time between them.

The humanitarian scale is significant. DW reported that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration had already spent more than 1 billion pesos on food and other aid for hundreds of thousands of storm victims, while also seeking help from neighboring countries and support from the United States and the United Nations Humanitarian Country Team. The UN team said it was raising $32.9 million to help women, children and people with disabilities.

The Philippines averages around 20 tropical storms a year, but the 2024 season was particularly punishing. DW noted that the country had already been hit by multiple major systems in quick succession, leaving millions displaced and critical infrastructure damaged. That pattern reflects both the country’s geography and the growing strain of repeated extreme-weather events.

For Cagayan residents, the immediate concern was simply getting out of the storm’s path. For the country as a whole, Usagi was another reminder that evacuation orders, shelter capacity and post-storm recovery are becoming ever more difficult to manage when major storms arrive one after another.