STORM USMAN

About:

• The weather disturbance/storm locally named Usman struck the Philippines shortly after Christmas, with the number of fatalities expected to rise.
  
  
• While it did not have powerful winds, it brought heavy rains that caused floods and loosened the soil, triggering landslides in some areas.
  
  
• Many people failed to take necessary precautions because Usman was not strong enough to be rated as a typhoon under the government’s storm alert system.
  
  
• An average of 20 typhoons and storms lash the Philippines each year, killing hundreds of people and leaving millions in near-perpetual poverty. The most powerful was Super Typhoon Haiyan which left more than 7,360 people dead or missing across the central Philippines in 2013.