Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has declared a state of emergency after typhoon Kalmaegi left at least 114 people dead and nearly 130 missing in central provinces in the deadliest natural disaster to hit the country this year.
The deaths were mostly from drowning in flash floods, and 127 people were still missing, many in the hard-hit central province of Cebu. The tropical cyclone blew out of the archipelago on Wednesday into the South China Sea.
The typhoon’s onslaught affected nearly 2 million people and displaced more than 560,000 villagers, including nearly 450,000 who were evacuated to emergency shelters, the office of civil defence said.
Marcos’s “state of national calamity” declaration, made during a meeting with disaster-response officials to assess the typhoon’s aftermath on Thursday, would allow the government to disburse emergency funds faster and prevent food hoarding and overpricing.
While still dealing with the deadly and disastrous impact of Kalmaegi in the country’s central region, disaster-response officials warned that another tropical cyclone from the Pacific could strengthen into a super typhoon and batter the northern Philippines early next week.
Among the dead attributed by officials to Kalmaegi were six people who were killed when a Philippine air force helicopter crashed in the southern province of Agusan del Sur on Tuesday. The crew was on its way to provide humanitarian help to provinces battered by the typhoon, the military said. It did not give the cause of the crash.
Kalmaegi set off flash floods and caused a river and other waterways to swell in Cebu province. The resulting flooding engulfed residential communities, forcing residents to climb on their roofs, where they desperately pleaded to be rescued as the flood waters rose, provincial officials said.
At least 71 people died in Cebu, mostly due to drownings, while 65 others were reported missing and 69 injured, the office of civil defence said.
It added that 62 others were reported missing in the central province of Negros Occidental, which is located near Cebu.
“We did everything we can for the typhoon but, you know, there are really some unexpected things like flash floods,” Cebu’s governor, Pamela Baricuatro, said by phone.
The problems may have been made worse by years of quarrying that caused clogging of nearby rivers, which overflowed, and substandard flood control projects in Cebu province, Baricuatro said.
A corruption scandal involving substandard or non-existent flood control projects across the Philippines has sparked public outrage and street protests in recent months.
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.
Ferries and fishing boats were prohibited from venturing out to increasingly rough seas during the typhoon, stranding more than 3,500 passengers and cargo truck drivers in nearly 100 seaports, the coast guard said. At least 186 domestic flights were canceled.
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. (The Guardian)
