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Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. declared a state of emergency on Thursday after Typhoon Kalmaegi left at least 114 people dead and hundreds missing in central provinces in the deadliest natural disaster to hit the country this year.
The deaths were mostly caused by 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 two 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, will allow the government to disburse emergency funds more quickly 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 forming over the Pacific could strengthen into a super typhoon and strike the northern Philippines early next week.
Among the dead attributed to Kalmaegi were six people killed when a Philippine air force helicopter crashed in the southern province of Agusan del Sur on Tuesday. The crew had been en route to provide humanitarian assistance to provinces battered by the storm, the military said. No cause for the crash was given.
Kalmaegi triggered flash floods and caused rivers and other waterways to swell in Cebu province. The resulting inundation engulfed residential communities, forcing residents to climb onto rooftops and plead for rescue as the waters rose, provincial officials said.
At least 71 people died in Cebu, mostly from drowning, while 65 others were reported missing and 69 injured, according to the Office of Civil Defence.
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It added that 62 others were reported missing in the nearby province of Negros Occidental.
“We did everything we can for the typhoon but, you know, there are really some unexpected things like flash floods,” Cebu Governor Pamela Baricuatro told The Associated Press by telephone.
Baricuatro said years of quarrying that caused clogging of nearby rivers, which overflowed, and substandard flood-control projects may have worsened the problems in Cebu province.
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 September 30 that left at least 79 people dead and displaced thousands after houses collapsed or were severely damaged.
Thousands of northern Cebu residents who had been displaced by the earthquake were moved to sturdier evacuation shelters from flimsy tents before the typhoon struck, Baricuatro said. Northern towns devastated by the quake were mostly spared from the floods generated by Kalmaegi, she added.
Ferries and fishing boats were banned from venturing into increasingly rough seas, stranding more than 3,500 passengers and cargo lorry drivers at nearly 100 seaports, the coast guard said. At least 186 domestic flights were cancelled.
The Philippines is struck by about 20 typhoons and storms each year. The country is also frequently hit by earthquakes and has more than a dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone nations.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
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