Digging out after Typhoon Fung-wong leaves 18 dead

TUGUEGARAO CITY: Rescuers using backhoes and chainsaws began digging the Philippines out from the devastation of Typhoon Fung-wong on Tuesday, as floodwaters receded in hundreds of villages and the storm’s death toll climbed to 18. Fung-wong, which displaced 1.4 million people, had weakened into a severe tropical storm even as it began dumping rain on neighboring Taiwan ahead of an expected Wednesday landfall.

It was the second major typhoon to hit the Philippines in days, after Typhoon Kalmaegi last week rampaged through the archipelago’s central islands on its way to killing 232 people, according to the latest figures. In coastal Isabela province, a town of 6,000 remained cut off from help on Tuesday, a civil defense spokesman said, with parts of neighboring Nueva Vizcaya province similarly isolated. “We are struggling to access these areas,” said Cagayan Valley region spokesman Alvin Ayson, who added that landslides had prevented rescuers from reaching affected residents.

Others were “now in evacuation centers, but when they get back to their homes, their rebuilding will take time and face challenges.” He added that a 10-year-old boy in Nueva Vizcaya had been killed by one of the landslides. The child was among 18 deaths recorded in a new death toll released Tuesday by national civil defense deputy administrator Rafaelito Alejandro.

In a phone interview, Alejandro said that even “early recovery” efforts would take weeks. “The greatest challenge for us right now is the restoration of lifelines, road clearing, and restoration of power and communication lines, but we are working on it.” In hardest-hit Catanduanes island, issues with the water supply could take up to 20 days to fix, he said. Schools and offices were closed on Tuesday in multiple counties in Taiwan as the approaching storm intensified the northeast monsoon, triggering heavy rain.

Up to 400 millimeters (nearly 16 inches) of rain is expected over the next 24 hours, government and weather officials there said. President Lai Ching-te urged people to avoid mountainous areas, beaches and “other dangerous locations” to “get through this period safely.” ‘Strongest typhoon’ In Cagayan, part of the Philippines’ largest river basin, provincial rescue chief Rueli Rapsing said on Monday that a flash flood in neighboring 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, said 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 30 kilometers 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 2:00 am 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.

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