Tropical Storm Parma stalled for two days off northwestern Philippines, was slowly heading toward the country's tobacco-producing region on Tuesday, after killing at least 22 people.
Right behind it is Typhoon Melor, a Category 4 storm currently south of Okinawa and on a path that could take it over Tokyo by Thursday, according to the weather tracking Web site Tropical Storm Risk.
Parma, downgraded to a tropical storm on Monday, was meandering off the northern tip of the Philippines, about 68 miles north-northwest of the Ilocos region, said Nathaniel Cruz, the weather bureau's chief forecaster.
"Parma moved much closer to the Ilocos region because Typhoon Melor is influencing its movement," Cruz said, adding it was not expected to make landfall and may move southwest toward the South China Sea in the next three days.
It is typhoon season in the Philippines and Parma has been drenching the northern part of the country for about a week after a previous storm dumped an average month's worth of rain in one day on greater Manila, displacing nearly a half-million people.
Manila is still cleaning up from the floods.
Taiwan sees torrential rains
Parma was still expected to cause some more damage, and is dumping torrential rains over Taiwan. Taiwan's central weather bureau, however, lifted its land warning as the storm moved away from the island.
Nearly 8,000 people were evacuated as rainfall reached as high as 1,414 mm in the mountains near Taiwan's east coast, disaster officials said.
Stung by accusations of a slow response to an August typhoon that killed about 770 people, mostly in rain-triggered mudslides, Taiwan required evacuations ahead of Parma.
Parma slammed into the northern Philippines on Saturday, triggering floods and landslides and destroying nearly $16.8 million in crops and infrastructure in the country, according to officials and radio reports.
More than 300,000 people were affected and a third of those were in temporary shelters. Power and communications have yet to be restored in some areas.
Ketsana, the typhoon that hit the capital city area more than a week ago, killed 300 people.
The United Nations is raising $75 million, appealing to member-states and donor agencies to help in the relief and rehabilitation work in typhoon-hit areas in the Philippines.
