MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Villagers in the northern provinces of the Philippines were forced to evacuate Wednesday as a powerful typhoon approached the country. Latest storm leaves at least 182 dead and missing and emergency shelters are overflowing with displaced people.

Typhoon Kong-rey was last tracked 350 kilometers (217 mi) east of northern Cagayan province; There were sustained winds of up to 185 kilometers (115 mph) per hour and gusts of up to 230 kilometers (143 mph). Forecasters said it could become even stronger at sea.

The northwesterly wind was expected to pass near the Philippines’ northernmost province of Batanes before hitting southeast Taiwan on Thursday.

“We are still recovering from the previous two typhoons and storms, and here we go again,” Batanes Governor Marilou Cayco told The Associated Press.

“We are currently traveling around to monitor the forced evacuation of people, especially those whose homes were heavily damaged by the last storm,” Cayco said.

Elsewhere in the northern Philippines, more than 300,000 people were displaced last week. Tropical Storm TramiCivil Protection Department officials said they were staying in emergency shelters as the new typhoon approached.

Forecasters also warned of “life-threatening storm surge reaching 2 to 3 meters (6.5 to 9.8 feet)” that could be triggered by Kong-rey off the low-lying coast of Batanes and the nearby Babuyan island cluster.

All ships and cargo vessels were advised to remain in ports, and those at sea were advised to seek shelter or safe harbor as soon as possible until the wind and waves subsided.

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., who is overseeing disaster response efforts, ordered the forced evacuation of people in high-risk areas threatened by Kong-rey, locally called Leon.

“We always aim for zero loss of life in case of disaster, so we strongly urge the public to comply with our protocols,” Teodoro said.

While Kong-rey is expected to blow through the northern Philippines, the broad rain band more than 600 kilometers (373 miles) wide could hit the entire northern main region of Luzon, the country’s most populous region, the government said.

Tropical Storm Trami, which broke out in the northern Philippines last Friday, killed at least 145 people and left 37 missing, mostly in widespread flooding and landslides, affecting more than 7 million people in about 11,000 mostly rural villages, the government’s disaster mitigation agency said. he said.

More than 111,000 homes were damaged and many were submerged by floods and overflowing rivers. Trami dumped up to two months’ worth of rain in just 24 hours in some areas, causing flash floods that swept away cars and stranded people on rooftops.

At the height of last week’s onslaught, authorities in the hard-hit Bicol region, southeast of the capital Manila, frantically called for more rescue boats to rescue thousands of villagers trapped in rising floodwaters.

The disaster-prone Philippines experiences about 20 storms and typhoons every year. In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded in the world, left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, destroyed entire villages, and stranded scores of cargo ships inland, crashing into homes and people in the central Philippines.