25 September 2015•Update: 25 September 2015
By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
Tropical storm Dujuan claimed its first reported victim Friday as strong winds and rains struck the Philippines south as the storm headed to China and Japan.
The head of Zamboanga City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office reported one fatality -- a man named Dexter Basa, who "was pinned to death in a truck by an uprooted coconut tree".
Elmeir Apolinario said in a statement Friday that teams had rescued three injured people, including a child hurt after a tree fell on a house in the village of Pasonanca, Zamboanga, a majority Christian city in te predomionnatly Muslim south.
Apolinario added that a number of areas floodwaters had submerged a number of areas -- "rising in some places to the level of the chest of a fully-grown man" -- and that navy personnel had been deployed to help pluck people from their homes.
He said that more than one hundred families in the area had been affected by falling trees, heavy rains, strong winds and overflowing rivers.
AccuWeather Global Weather Center reported Friday that tropical storm Dujuan (known locally as "Jenny") may strengthen into the equivalent of a category 3 hurricane as it heads toward Japan, Taiwan and eastern China this weekend.
It said that residents of Japan's southern Ryukyu Islands should be prepared for the impending typhoon and heed evacuation orders.
"Later next week, Dujuan may track farther into eastern China but could instead take a turn to the northeast and threaten more of mainland Japan and even South Korea with potentially flooding rain," AccuWeather added.
The tropical cyclone is not expected to make landfall again in the Philippines -- however, it will continue to heighten the effects of the monsoon in the south of the country.
Local officials are reported to have advised people residing along river banks as well as coastal and low lying areas to seek safer, higher ground due to continuing heavy rain.
