CEBU, Philippines — Typhoon Kalmaegi (Tino in Philippines) killed at least 66 people across the Philippines, the national civil defense office said Wednesday, as residents in flooded urban centers began sifting through mud-caked homes and wrecked businesses.
“It was the major cities that got hit (with floods), highly urbanized areas,” Rafaelito Alejandro, deputy administrator of the Office of Civil Defense, told local radio. He said 49 of the dead were in Cebu province, a key tourism hub still reeling from a magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck its northern section just over a month ago, killing dozens and displacing thousands.
Among the fatalities were six military personnel whose helicopter crashed Tuesday in Agusan del Sur province on Mindanao island during a humanitarian mission, officials said.
Floodwaters receded in Cebu on Wednesday, exposing collapsed houses, overturned vehicles and streets blanketed in debris. More than 200,000 people had been evacuated across the Visayas region, including parts of southern Luzon and northern Mindanao, before the storm submerged neighborhoods and knocked out power.
Kalmaegi, locally named Tino, made landfall early Tuesday with sustained winds of 120 kph (75 mph) and gusts up to 165 kph (102 mph). It was the 20th tropical cyclone to strike the Philippines this year.
The storm weakened after crossing the archipelago but is expected to regain strength over the South China Sea, the state weather agency PAGASA said in its latest bulletin. It is forecast to approach Vietnam and make landfall there Friday, prompting preparations in that country.
Kalmaegi follows Super Typhoon Ragasa, which barreled across northern Luzon in September, forcing school and government office closures with ferocious winds and heavy rain. (source: Agencies)
