Typhoon Kalmaegi made landfall in the Philippines on Tuesday, blasting through the heavily populated center of the country with driving rain and 120 mile per hour wind gusts.
President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., declared a “state of national calamity” on Thursday as disaster officials reported 114 fatalities and 127 people unaccounted for.
Typhoon Kalmaegi, known locally as “Tino,” proved to be the worst natural disaster in the Philippines this year, and it arrived hard on the heels of the second-worst disaster — a 6.9-magnitude earthquake on September 30 that killed at least 79 people. The Philippine islands were also struck by two powerful typhoons in September, one of them strong enough to be classified as a “super typhoon.”
The storm on Tuesday brought unexpected flash floods to areas that were still recovering from the earthquake. Civil defense officials said the majority of the confirmed fatalities were caused by flooding, with at least 71 such deaths counted on the central island of Cebu. Other deaths were caused by falling trees, downed power lines, and landslides.
Six of the confirmed deaths were caused when a military rescue helicopter crashed on Mindanao Island, south of Cebu, during relief efforts. The bodies of the pilot and crew were recovered by a search and rescue operation.
Disaster relief officials said over 400,000 people were displaced by the storm, many of them fleeing from homes and shelters that filled up with water in a matter of minutes as rivers of muddy water poured down hillsides. Survivors described sitting on top of their flooded houses and watching vehicles and debris drift by on fast-moving flood waters.
Typhoon Kalmaegi swept on to Vietnam on Thursday, making landfall at around 7:00 p.m. local time with 90 mile per hour winds. Three fishermen were soon reported missing after their boat was blown out to sea by the storm tides.
Vietnamese authorities said over 537,000 people were evacuated due to flooding from Kalmaegi, many of them rescued by boat from communities that were flooded by more than 24 inches of rain. The financial hub of Ho Chi Minh City was placed under flood watch on Thursday.
Another massive storm is headed for the Philippines, currently classified as Tropical Storm Fung-wong. Meterologists are warning it could reach typhoon or even super-typhoon strength before it hits the Philippine island of Luzon on Monday.
