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MANILA: Storm-weary Filipinos were on Thursday told to prepare for another typhoon to hit the main island of Luzon during the upcoming long-weekend holiday, with rain forecast for flood-ravaged Manila.
Typhoon Mirinae, already packing gusts of up to 185 kilometres (115 miles) an hour, was expected to become stronger before it slams into the Philippines on Saturday, the state weather bureau said.
"We should expect (Mirinae) to become a very intense typhoon in the next several hours or days," weather bureau spokesman Nathaniel Cruz said on local television.
Mirinae's expected arrival comes as Luzon is still trying to recover from two devastating storms that claimed more than 1,000 lives.
Parts of Manila remain flooded after Tropical Storm Ketsana dumped the heaviest rains in more than four decades on the nation's capital on September 26.
Typhoon Parma arrived exactly one week later, then hovered over northern Luzon as a tropical storm for nearly 10 days, causing massive flooding and triggering deadly landslides.
Cruz warned that Manila was likely to get more rain, potentially exacerbating the woes for more than one million people still living in flooded districts.
"If and when (Mirinae) will cross northern or central Luzon, definitely metro Manila will be affected by strong winds and rains associated with it," Cruz said.
The rain also threatens to cause havoc for millions of Filipinos living in cities who are expected to return to their home provinces at the weekend to honour their dead during All Soul's Day on Monday, which is a public holiday.
The government this week said it had already positioned relief supplies in northern Luzon in preparation for Mirinae, while the military and other rescue units were placed on alert.
- AFP/so
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