Mangkhut leaves trail of devastation
At least 59 people were killed after Typhoon Mangkhut, the world’s strongest storm so far this year, slammed into the northern Philippines before wreaking havoc in Hong Kong throughout yesterday. As winds of up to 145 miles an hour whipped between skyscrapers in the city’s narrow streets, buildings swayed, trees were felled, roads flooded and windows smashed. Hundreds of thousands were evacuated in nearby Guangdong province, southern China.
AT LEAST 59 people were killed after Typhoon Mangkhut, the world’s strongest storm of the year, slammed into the northern Philippines on Saturday before wreaking havoc in Hong Kong throughout Sunday.
Although the storm had weakened overnight, authorities in Hong Kong issued their maximum alert. As winds of up to 145 miles an hour whipped between skyscrapers in the city’s streets, buildings swayed, trees were felled, roads flooded and windows smashed.
In nearby Guangdong province, southern China, hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated as it approached on Sunday evening.
As officials took stock of the damage on the Philippines’ northern island of Luzon, aid workers rushed to rescue the victims of landslides, including one that overwhelmed a church where people were taking shelter and another which engulfed a miners’ bunkhouse thought to have 40 to 50 people inside.
“I can’t begin to accept this, but it looks like the casualties here are going to go up to at least 100,” said Victorio Palangdan, the mayor of Itogon, Benguet, in Luzon’s central highlands, according to The New York Times.
A baby and a toddler were among the dead in several smaller landslides in mountainous areas.
Francis Tolentino, a senior adviser to President Rodrigo Duterte, estimated 5.7 million people had been affected by the storm, and that delivering aid supplies would be a major challenge.
In the town of Baggao, Mangkhut demolished houses, tore off roofs and downed power lines. Some roads were cut off by landslides and many remained submerged. Farms across northern Luzon, which produces much of the nation’s rice and corn, were sitting under muddy floodwater, crops ruined a month before harvest.
“We’re already poor and then this happened to us. We have lost hope,” 40-year-old Mary Anne Baril, whose corn and rice crops were spoilt, told AFP. Almost a quarter of the five million people in the direct path of the storm survive on a few dollars a day.
An average of 20 typhoons and storms lash the Philippines each year, killing hundreds of people. The country’s deadliest storm on record is Super Typhoon Haiyan, which left more than 7,350 people dead or missing across the central Philippines in November 2013.
In Hong Kong, the city shut down and social media posts of the storm’s impact went viral, showing roofs being torn off, people being blown off their feet and a crane toppling over at a construction site. Close to 900 flights were cancelled and many residents taped up their windows and huddled indoors.
Waters surged in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour and coastal villages, from which hundreds of residents were evacuated to storm shelters. In the fishing village of Tai O, where many residents live in stilt houses over the sea, some tried bailing out their homes. “Floodwater is rushing into my home but I’m continuously shovelling the water out,” Tai O resident Lau Kingcheung told AFP by phone.
As the storm moved south past Macau, its streets became submerged and urgent preparations were made towards China’s southern coast.
♦ Hurricane Florence has now killed at least 14 people, while the risk of catastrophic flash flooding still looms large. North and South Carolina remain in a state of emergency with almost a million people without power. Florence was downgraded to a tropical storm and depression yesterday.