A river swollen from Typhoon Toraji rains swallowed homes in a northern province in the Philippines.

Aerial footage shows the Cagayan River swallowing swathes of farm and residential land in Cagayan province on November 12.

The provincial information office said houses in the neighbours towns of Alcala and Solana were swamped as the water level continued to rise.

Philippine weather agency PAGASA said Toraji, locally called Nika, touched down in Dilasag town in northeastern Aurora province at 8:10 am local time on November 11, with sustained winds of up to 81 miles per hour.

Thousands of residents were forcibly evacuated from their homes in northern provinces which were ravaged by four cyclones in less than a month. Schools and government offices were also closed in areas expected to be hit hardest by the typhoon.

Toraji whirled across the mountainous main island of Luzon before exiting into the South China Sea as a tropical storm. It left the Philippine monitoring zone at 2 pm on November 12, but PAGASA said it was now observing Tropical Storm Usagi, which entered the zone at 3 am today.

The relentless cyclones come on the heels of three others that killed 159 people in the storm-weary country in less than a month.

The Philippines experiences frequent and intense storms especially during the typhoon season from June to November, due to its location in the Pacific typhoon belt. These storms often bring heavy rain, strong winds, and flooding that cause significant damage to infrastructure, agriculture, and communities.