Thousands flee as fourth typhoon in a month hits Philippines

Thousands of people sought shelter and ports shut down in the Philippines on Nov 11, as the disaster-weary nation was struck by another typhoon fourth in less than a month.

Typhoon Toraji hit near Dilasag town, about 220km north-east of the capital Manila, the national weather agency said.

"We're getting hit with strong winds and heavy rain. Some trees are being toppled and power has been cut since yesterday," Ms Merwina Pableo, civil defence chief of Dinalungan town near Dilasag, told AFP.

Rescuers said around 7,000 people were moved from coastal areas as well as flood-prone and landslide-prone areas in Aurora and Isabela, the first two provinces to be struck before Toraji ploughed inland to the mountainous interior of the main island of Luzon.

The government ordered 2,500 villages to be evacuated on Nov 10, but the national disaster office on Nov 11 could not say how many people had taken shelter.

In the landfall area of Dilasag, school teacher Glenn Balanag, 31, filmed the onslaught of the howling 130kmh winds, which violently shook coconut trees around his rural home.