“STRONGEST TYPHOON”
In Cagayan, part of the Philippines’ largest river basin, provincial rescue chief Rueli Rapsing told AFP on Monday that a flash flood in neighbouring Apayao province had caused the Chico River to burst its banks, sending nearby residents scrambling for higher ground.
“We received reports … that some people were already on their roofs,” he said, adding most had been rescued.
Mark Lamer, 24, a resident of Cagayan’s Tuao town, told AFP it was the “strongest typhoon I have ever experienced”.
“We didn’t think the water would reach us. It had never risen this high previously,” he said.
More than 5,000 people were safely evacuated before the overflowing Cagayan River buried the small city of Tuguegarao about 30km away.
“Tuguegarao is underwater now,” Rapsing said.
Scientists warn that storms are becoming more powerful due to human-driven climate change. Warmer oceans allow typhoons to strengthen rapidly and a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, which means heavier rainfall.
Fung-wong’s death toll rose Monday after five-year-old twins and an elderly man in two northern Luzon provinces were reported killed in landslides.
The two children were killed at around 2am as their family slept inside their home, according to Ayson, the regional spokesman. Seasonal monsoon rains had saturated the soil around the dwelling before Fung-wong struck, he said.
The storm’s first fatality came a day earlier further south in Samar province, while another was confirmed on Catanduanes island, where storm surges Sunday morning sent waves hurtling over streets and floodwaters into homes.
Typhoon Kalmaegi last week sent floods rushing through the towns and cities of the central Philippines, sweeping away cars, riverside shanties and shipping containers.
President Ferdinand Marcos said Monday that a “state of national calamity” declared over Kalmaegi would be extended to a full year.
Source: CNA
