Typhoon leaves 1 dead, extensive damage
MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Strong winds and rain from Typhoon Vongfong left at least one person dead and damaged hundreds of homes and coronavirus isolation facilities in five hard-hit eastern towns, a governor said Friday.
Gov. Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar province, where the typhoon slammed ashore, said residents wept after their houses were destroyed or blown away in the towns he inspected. One villager who lost his home slashed his wrist but was treated in time, he said.
A man bled to death after he was hit by glass shards in a school building he was trying to open to take shelter in, Evardone said.
“The damage I saw was very extensive. The roof of one church was ripped off completely, its iron bars twisted badly by the typhoon,” Evardone said.
Videos and pictures of the devastation sent by Evardone showed several low-slung buildings and sports centers either destroyed or badly damaged with their roofs peeled off or deformed and their iron trusses bent. Villagers outside damaged houses yelled “help” in one video.
He said he and a group of military, police and authorities failed to reach two towns hit by the typhoon, Jipapad and Maslog, due to fallen trees on the road. Cellphone and two-way radio communications to the far-flung areas were down and Evardone appealed to the military to deploy a helicopter to inspect them and deliver food if troops are unable to reach the area by Saturday.
In the outlying region of
Bicol, northwest of Eastern Samar, more than 145,000 people were riding out the weakening typhoon in emergency shelters on Friday after a mass evacuation that was complicated and slowed by the coronavirus.
Vongfong weakened into a tropical storm after hitting land and was blowing northwest toward the populous main island of Luzon, government forecasters said.
Its maximum sustained wind speed dropped to 68 miles per hour with gusts of 93 mph but it remained dangerous, especially in coastal and low-lying villages, forecasters said. Vongfong was expected to blow out of the country’s north on Sunday.
Office of Civil Defense Director Claudio Yucot said the evacuations took time because workers needed to wear masks and protective suits and could not transport villagers to shelters in large numbers as a safeguard against the virus.