Powerful typhoon hits the Philippines.
At least three people have died as a powerful typhoon hits the Philippines.
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At least three people were killed in the Philippines on Friday after a powerful typhoon flooded villages, tore off roofs, toppled trees, and knocked out power in southern and central island provinces, officials said. More than 300,000 villagers had fled to safety before the onslaught.
Typhoon Rai weakened slightly after making landfall on the Philippines’ southeastern coast on Thursday, but it remained deadly and destructive, with sustained winds of 155 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 215 kilometers per hour as it barreled westward toward western Palawan province before exiting into the South China Sea, according to meteorologists.
Officials were analyzing the damage and casualties caused by one of the fiercest typhoons to batter the country in recent years, but they said their efforts were impeded by widespread power outages, destroyed communications, and roads blocked with fallen trees and debris. Witnesses recounted violent winds ripping off roofs and bringing down trees, while others claimed heavy flooding trapping families in their homes, including those on the banks of overflowing rivers.
“I have never witnessed such fury of wind in my life,” Mayor Jerry Trenas of central Iloilo city told The Associated Press over the phone, adding that at least one citizen was killed when she was struck by a clump of bamboo blown down by the storm.
Workers were clearing roads in the almost half-million-strong coastal city, which was still without power and dealing with intermittent mobile signals, he said.
Officials said two more people died in southern Bukidnon province, where a falling tree killed one resident and injured another, and in southern Surigao city, where a man was killed by debris.
At least two further typhoon-related deaths have been confirmed in central Guimaras province, according to officials.
On Thursday, inhabitants in a southern province were rescued from chest-deep floods as torrential rains flooded communities with brownish water. Two rescuers in southern Cagayan de Oro city struggled to keep a month-old infant above water in a washing basin while shielding it from the wind and rain with an umbrella.
As the typhoon approached from the Pacific Ocean, presidential spokesman Karlo Nograles said more than 332,000 people were evacuated from high-risk villages, including nearly 15,000 who were taken to evacuation centers. After the country’s first infections caused by the omicron version of the coronavirus were discovered, officials struggled to keep people at a safe distance. Vaccination campaigns were also discontinued in the typhoon-affected provinces.
More than 4,500 passengers, ferries, and cargo ship personnel were stranded after the coast guard grounded all vessels in dozens of ports affected by inclement weather. According to Nograles, an international airport in central Cebu province has been blocked, and many largely domestic flights have been canceled, as well as schools and workplaces in the most vulnerable locations.
At least 62 cities and towns were without power or were suffering service interruptions due to the storm.
Every year, the Philippines is hit by about 20 storms and typhoons. The archipelago is part of the seismically active Pacific “Ring of Fire,” making it one of the most disaster-prone countries on the planet.