Typhoon Kalmaegi has left at least 66 people dead with 26 others missing in the central Philippines, many in widespread flooding that trapped people on their roofs and swept away scores of cars in a hard-hit province still recovering from a deadly earthquake, officials said.
Among the dead were six people who were killed in a separate incident when a Philippine air force helicopter crashed in the southern province of Agusan del Sur on Tuesday while en route to help provide humanitarian help to provinces battered by Kalmaegi, the military said without providing other details, including what could have caused the crash.
Kalmaegi blew away from western Palawan province into the South China Sea before noon on Wednesday with sustained winds of up to 130 kph (81 mph) and gusts of up to 180 kph (112 mph), according to forecasters.
Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV, deputy administrator of the Office of Civil Defense, and provincial officials said most of the deaths were reported in the central province of Cebu, which was pummelled by Kalmaegi on Tuesday, setting off flash floods and causing a river and other waterways to swell.
The resulting flooding engulfed residential communities, forcing residents to climb up to their roofs, where they desperately pleaded to be rescued, officials said.
The Philippine Red Cross received many calls from people needing rescue from their roofs, its secretary-general Gwendolyn Pang said Tuesday, adding rescue efforts had to wait until flooding subsided to lessen the risks for emergency personnel.
Cebu, a bustling province of more than 2.4 million people, declared a state of calamity to allow authorities to disburse emergency funds more rapidly to deal with the latest natural disaster.
Cebu was still recovering from a 6.9 magnitude earthquake on 30 September that left at least 79 people dead and displaced thousands when houses collapsed or were severely damaged.
Hundreds of northern Cebu residents who were displaced by the earthquake were moved to sturdier evacuation shelters from flimsy tents before the typhoon struck, disaster-response officials said.
Other typhoon deaths were recorded in Southern Leyte province, where an elderly villager drowned in flood waters after the typhoon made landfall in one of its eastern towns facing the Pacific. Another resident died after being hit by a fallen tree in central Bohol province, officials said.
Before Kalmaegi’s landfall, officials said more than 387,000 people had evacuated to safer ground in eastern and central Philippine provinces. Authorities had warned of torrential rains, potentially destructive winds and storm surges of up to three meters.
Ferries and fishing boats were prohibited from venturing out to increasingly rough seas, stranding more than 3,500 passengers and cargo truck drivers in nearly 100 seaports, the coast guard said. At least 186 domestic flights were cancelled.
The Philippines is battered by about 20 typhoons and storms each year. The country also is often hit by earthquakes and has more than a dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.
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