Strongest typhoon of year so far kills 16
MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will today inspect areas hit by Typhoon Goni, the world’s strongest typhoon this year, as authorities claimed mandatory evacuations had prevented a higher death toll even as some areas remained cut off.
The country’s disaster agency said Goni had killed at least 16 people and three were reported missing.
Goni, the 18th cyclone to hit the Philippines this year, battered provinces south of the capital on Sunday (local time).
‘‘The goal should be zero casualties but since people were forcibly evacuated our casualties were reduced,’’ spokesman for Duterte Harry Roque said.
Duterte would conduct an aerial inspection of some of the worsthit areas, Roque said.
The Philippine police chief was on his way to Guinobatan in Albay province after a local lawmaker reported about 300 houses had been buried under volcanic rock and mud flows from the Mayon Volcano.
Goni, which had gusts of up to 305kmh, destroyed up to 80% of homes in several towns in Catanduanes, Senator Richard Gordon, chief of the Philippine Red Cross, told a radio station.
Catanduanes, a province of 275,000 people, was cut off, with communication and power lines down, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said.
Goni affected 2.1 million residents in Luzon, which accounts for more than twothirds of the economy, and more than 50,000 homes were without power yesterday.
Ahead of Goni’s landfall, the Philippines was still reeling from Typhoon Molave that killed 22 people, mostly through drowning in provinces south of the capital, Manila.
Another storm, Atsani, is gaining strength in the Pacific Ocean as it approaches the Philippines.
Meanwhile, Vietnam’s Government said Goni was forecast to make landfall on the country’s central coast tomorrow night, dumping more heavy rain in an area where floods and landslips have already killed about 160 people and left dozens of others missing over the past month.