Another tropical storm barreled across Philippine islands yesterday, causing at least four deaths and the evacuations of more than 433,000 people from landslide and flood-prone villages long battered by typhoons.
Bualoi, which has weakened since making landfall overnight, was the latest of back-to-back storms from the Pacific to threaten Asia.
Typhoon Ragasa, one of the strongest to hit in years, caused at least 25 deaths in the northern Philippines and Taiwan, mostly from flooding, before making landfall in China and dissipating over Vietnam.
Photo: AFP
Bualoi made landfall in the Philippine town of San Policarpo in Eastern Samar province late on Thursday with sustained winds of 110kph, knocking out power in east-central provinces and setting off flooding and two minor landslides, the country’s disaster-mitigation agency said.
More than 433,000 were evacuated to government emergency shelters as the storm approached, including in Albay province, where villagers on the foothills of Mayon, one of the country’s most active volcanoes, were asked to move to safety due to possible volcanic mudflows, Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV from the Philippine Office of Civil Defense told reporters.
The four deaths were in the central island province of Masbate. Three were hit separately by a falling tree, a collapsed wall and falling debris and a fourth was hit by lightning Thursday night, officials said.
“We need clearing operations because most of our road networks are not really passable for food and health assistance to pass,” Masbate Governor Ricardo Kho told a news conference.
“We also need help to have our ports reopened as early as possible for us to receive help from different provinces,” he said.
The fast-moving storm, which had a rain and wind band of about 450km from its center, was blowing northwest and was expected to blow over densely populated coastal provinces south of the capital, Manila, later yesterday before entering the South China Sea, a Philippine forecaster said.
It could restrengthen to a typhoon on a course toward Vietnam, they added.
Bualoi, locally named Opong, was the 15th tropical cyclone to hit the Philippines this year.
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