Even as the Philippines is still assessing the damage wreaked by typhoon Melor, which lashed the central region with heavy rains and winds on Tuesday, another storm is said to be brewing in the Pacific and could potentially turn into a cyclone.
At least nine people were killed and almost 800,000 evacuated as typhoon Melor, locally called Nona, inundated villages and damaged houses.See PHOTOS here.
But the country had new worries as a low pressure area was reported to have been formed in the Pacific, and the "potential for the development of a significant tropical cyclone within the next 24 hours is high", according to the US Joint Typhoon Warning Centre.
The tropical depression is likely to near the Philippines by Wednesday, while typhoon Melor is expected to move out by Friday.
The Philippines' state weather bureau PAGASA said on Wednesday the new storm will not affect or pull back typhoon Melor to the country, Phil Star reported.
If the tropical depression turns into a cyclone, it will be named Onyok, and will be the 15th storm to lash Philippines this year, local media reported.
Philippines normally sees about 20 typhoons every year, many of which wreak havoc by flooding regions.
The governor of Mindoro island, which bore the brunt of the typhoon on Tuesday, reportedly described Melor as one of the strongest typhoons to hit the province in recent years, according to Channel News Asia.
According to disaster official Jonathan Baldo, "thousands of lightly constructed houses had been reduced to matchsticks".
One of the Philippines' worst storms came in 2013, when typhoon Haiyan killed more than 6,000 people.
