At least 66 killed as Typhoon Kalmaegi batters the Philippines

The death toll from Typhoon Kalmaegi in the Philippines has climbed to 66, including six people on a military helicopter that crashed during the powerful storm, which unleashed heavy rains and floods across the central region of the country.

Floodwaters described as “unprecedented” trapped many people on the roofs of their homes and submerged cars on Tuesday, with entire towns inundated on the island of Cebu.
Cebu accounted for 49 of the deaths, the civil defence agency’s deputy administrator, Rafaelito Alejandro, said in an interview with local radio outlet DZMM on Wednesday, as he confirmed the overall death toll of 66.

“It was the major cities that got hit [with floods], highly urbanised areas,” Alejandro said, adding that 26 people are still missing.

“All the floods have subsided. Our challenge now is the clearing of this debris that is blocking our roads,” he said.

In the 24 hours before Typhoon Kalmaegi, locally named Tino, made landfall shortly before midnight on Monday, the area around the provincial capital, Cebu City, was deluged with 183mm (7 inches) of rainfall, well in excess of its 131mm monthly average (5.2 inches), state weather specialist Charmagne Varilla told the AFP news agency.

In Agusan del Sur, on the island of Mindanao, a Huey helicopter went down while conducting a humanitarian disaster response mission, the military said. Six bodies of the crew were recovered, and an investigation is under way, the military said.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, provincial Governor Pamela Baricuatro called the situation in Cebu “unprecedented”.
“We were expecting the winds to be the dangerous part, but … the water is what’s truly putting our people at risk,” Baricuatro said on Facebook. “The floodwaters are just devastating.”
Although the typhoon gradually lost strength on Tuesday, it continued to lash the country with winds of 120km/h (74.5mph) and gusts of 165km/h (102.5mph) as it swept across the Visayas islands, headed for northern Palawan and towards the South China Sea.

Tens of thousands of residents were evacuated across the Visayas region, including parts of southern Luzon and northern Mindanao, authorities said. The typhoon was expected to leave the Philippines late on Wednesday or early Thursday.

“Due to interaction with the terrain, Tino may slightly weaken while crossing Visayas. However, it is expected to remain at typhoon intensity throughout its passage over the country,” the Philippine weather agency PAGASA said in a morning bulletin.

The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, routinely striking disaster-prone areas where millions of people live in poverty.

The Philippines was hit by two major storms in September, including Super Typhoon Ragasa, which killed at least three people and forced thousands to evacuate from villages and schools in the north of the country.

Kalmaegi is forecast to make landfall on Thursday night in Vietnam’s central region, which has already suffered heavy floods that killed at least 40 people and left six others missing over the past week.