The last two typhoons and a tropical storm caused more than 160 deaths, damaged thousands of houses and farmlands and affected more than 9 million people, including hundreds of thousands who fled to emergency shelters, after dumping from one to two months’ worth of rain in just 24 hours in some cities and towns.

Thousands of people are being forcibly evacuated from 2,500 villages in the northern Philippines as another typhoon threatens the region already devastated by floods and landslides from three storms in less than a month.