Red Cross says millions at risk as 'one of the world's strongest storms of 2021' makes landfall in the Philippines.
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in the Philippines as "one of the world's strongest storms" of the year made landfall in mid-eastern parts of the island nation.
The Philippine's weather bureau, PAGASA, said Typhoon Rai made its first landfall in Surigao del Norte's Siargao Island at 05:30 GMT on Thursday.
It warned of "very destructive typhoon-force winds" in parts of the country and said it expected to see storm surges in coastal areas, as well as flooding and landslides in mountainous areas along the typhoon's path.
PAGASA said wind speed has accelerated to 195 kilometres (121 miles per hour) near the centre with gusts of up to 240km/h (149 mph).
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) of the US Navy has declared Rai as a super typhoon.
It is the 15th typhoon to hit the country this year. Official figures show some 100,000 people have now fled their homes.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies called the typhoon, which is locally known as Typhoon Odette, "one of the world's strongest storms of 2021" and said it is "threatening millions of people with destructive winds and flash floods".
"Filipinos are tough but this Super Typhoon is a bitter blow for millions of people who are still recovering from devastating storms, floods and COVID-19 in the past year," said Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippine Red Cross.
According to the national disaster mitigation agency, NDRRMC, eight regions in the country have been placed on the highest level in emergency preparedness and response protocol.
The eight regions located in the central and southern group of islands in the Visayas and Mindanao areas have a combined population of more than 30 million.
Later on Thursday, the NDRRMC issued an alert warning of possible flooding and mudslides in the Mindanao provinces of Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occidental, Lanao del Norte and Zamboanga Del Norte due to ongoing torrential rains that were expected to continue for at least three hours.
Several of those areas have been advised to conduct a preemptive evacuation.
Arvin Limare Bonbon, the disaster management head in Dipolog, told Al Jazeera that there's an "ongoing preemptive and forced evacuation" in some areas of the coastal city with a population of about 138,000.
Suspension of work and online classes have been ordered in some areas including the central province of Cebu, which has a population of eight million.
The Philippine coastguard said it has grounded all vessels, stranding nearly 4,000 passengers and ferry and cargo ship workers in dozens of southern and central ports. Several mostly domestic flights have been canceled and schools and workplaces were shut in the most vulnerable areas.
A COVID-19 vaccination drive has also been suspended in some parts of the country due to the typhoon. The evacuations could further complicate the country's coronavirus response as thousands of displaced residents pack emergency shelters, where it is difficult to maintain social distancing guidelines.
In the province of Eastern Samar in the Visayas, Governor Ben Evardone has been quoted as telling the DZMM radio station that nearly 30,000 residents have been evacuated as of Thursday morning. Eastern Samar and Leyte provinces were among those hardest hit by the 2013 super typhoon Haiyan, which left thousands dead.
In other parts of the eastern Visayas, more than 17,000 people were also evacuated, according to news reports.
In the province of Surigao del Norte in Mindanao, the provincial disaster mitigation agency said that 51,000 residents have been evacuated so far.
In Dinagat, Governor Arlene Bag-ao was quoted by news reports as saying that almost 2,000 families have sought shelter at evacuation centres.
The government's disaster-response agency said over 98,000 people had been evacuated across the country as of Thursday afternoon.
As early as Wednesday afternoon, emergency workers in Tandag, a southern coastal city with a population of more than 62,000, evacuated 3,668 families, the local government said, adding that the evacuees were housed in 18 temporary shelters.
In Cagayan de Oro, also in Mindanao, social media posts showed heavy rain and flooding in some areas of the city, which has a population of more than 675,000.
According to NDRRMC, the national government has placed on standby food and non-food supplies worth an estimated $6.6m.
The Philippines is regularly hit by more than a dozen deadly typhoons every year.
At least 33 people have been killed in the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year, official tallies showed on Saturday, with a charity reporting "alarming" destruction on islands that bore the brunt of the storm.
More than 300,000 people fled their homes and beachfront resorts as Typhoon Rai ravaged the southern and central regions of the archipelago, knocking out communications and electricity in many areas, ripping off roofs and toppling concrete power poles.
Rai was a super typhoon when it slammed into Siargao Island on Thursday, packing maximum sustained winds of 195 km/h (120 mph). On Friday, wind speeds eased to 150 km/h, the state weather forecaster said.
Aerial photos shared by the military showed widespread damage in the town of General Luna, where many surfers and holidaymakers had flocked for Christmas, with buildings stripped of roofs and debris littering the ground.
"Everything was flying, it was as if it was the end of the world," Raphy Repdos, a tour operator visiting the island when the storm hit, told AFP.
A neighbouring island, Dinagat, had been "levelled to the ground" by the storm, governor Arlene Bag-ao wrote on Facebook, saying houses, boats and fields were destroyed.
"Walls and roofs were torn and blown off by Odette like paper," Bag-ao said, using the local name for the typhoon.
"We have a dwindling supply of food and water. Electricity and telecommunications are down."
The storm also lashed the popular tourist destination of Palawan island after ravaging the Visayas and the southern island of Mindanao.
The earthquake happened around 40 miles from Pondaguitan in the Philippines.
"We are seeing people walking in the streets, many of them shell-shocked," ABS-CBN correspondent Dennis Datu reported from hard-hit Surigao, which is on the northern tip of Mindanao and near Siargao.
"All buildings sustained heavy damage, including the provincial disaster office. It looks like it's been hit by a bomb."
The main roads leading into the coastal city had been cut off by landslides, fallen trees and toppled power poles, he said.
Rai's wind speeds eased to 150km/h as it barrelled across the country, dumping torrential rain that flooded villages, uprooting trees and shattering wooden structures.
It emerged over the South China Sea on Saturday and was heading towards Vietnam, the state weather forecaster said.
"This is indeed one of the most powerful storms that has hit the Philippines in the month of December in the last decade," Alberto Bocanegra, the head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in the Philippines, told AFP.
"The information we are receiving and the pictures we are receiving are very alarming."
The overall death toll was least 33, according to official tallies.
Communications were still down in Siargao, which took the brunt of the storm, and Bocanegra said the organisation had "grave fears" for people there.
The Philippine coast guard shared photos on social media showing widespread destruction with roofs torn off buildings, wooden structures shattered and palm trees stripped of fronds around Surigao.
Aerial footage showed swathes of rice fields under water.
Scores of flights were cancelled across the country and dozens of ports temporarily closed as the weather bureau warned that metre-high storm surges could cause "life-threatening flooding" in low-lying coastal areas.
The country's second busiest airport in Cebu was damaged and flights have been suspended, Jalad said.
"The devastation is hard to explain," said Joel Darunday, 37, a tour operator in the central island province of Bohol, who was hunkered down at home with his family when the storm ripped off the roof.
"It was very strong. The last time I experienced something like this was back in the 1980s."
People began clearing fallen trees, branches and debris from roads as clean-up efforts and relief operations got under way in areas hit by Rai.
Verified photos taken in Lapu-Lapu city in Cebu province showed roadside buildings flattened by the storm, while sheets of corrugated iron roofing littered streets.
Rai has hit the Philippines late in the typhoon season - most cyclones typically develop between July and October.
Update 2: The Newastle Herald carried this Australian Associated Press report on December 19:
Death toll from Typhoon Rai hits 142
At least 142 people have been killed after Typhoon Rai battered the Philippines.
The death toll from the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year has risen to 142, as emergency teams reached devastated areas, bringing food, water and other supplies.
More than 480,000 people were displaced by Typhoon Rai, which flattened houses, damaged buildings and knocked out power and communication lines in the country's central and southern provinces, the national disaster agency said on Sunday.
Relief goods were flown in to the affected areas, according to local airlines. Volunteer doctors, rescue workers and other emergency teams were also flown in.
The central province of Bohol reported the highest death toll, at 72, according to its governor Arthur Yap. The number was based on reports from 42 out of 48 towns, he said.
"It is very clear that our people have suffered greatly in terms of destroyed homes and agricultural losses," he noted in a Facebook post.
Yap called for donations of portable generators to distribute among the towns to power water refilling stations, noting, "We cannot survive the next two to three weeks by just waiting for transmission lines to be repaired."
"Supplying the people drinking water is critical and relying on water bottles distribution is merely a stopgap measure which we will not be able to sustain for long," he added.
The island province of Dinagat has recorded 10 fatalities, with five missing, according to Jeffrey Crisostomo, provincial chief information officer.
"Our province survived, but the destruction is everywhere," he told DZBB radio station. "Around 90 per cent to 95 per cent of the province is damaged to totally wrecked."
Crisostomo said even the provincial capital building was damaged by Rai's fierce winds.
"I saw how Rai tore apart our provincial capitol, piece by piece," he said. "The building used to have a second floor, that is now gone. Tables heavier than people were flying at the height of the typhoon."
"It was like a washing machine that was spinning and you don't know where you will run," he added.
Dinagat Governor Arlene Bag-ao earlier likened Rai's aftermath to that of Super Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest typhoon to ever hit the Philippines, killing 6300 people in November 2013.
Haiyan devastated a wide area in the eastern and central Philippines, and displaced more than 4 million people.
Police reported 18 deaths in the nearby province of Negros Occidental, while the national disaster agency said it received reports of 16 people dead in Cebu province.
Twenty-six more fatalities were reported in eight central and southern provinces, according to local officials and police.
Rai moved out of the Philippines on Saturday, but rains were still being monitored in the country's western areas, including Metro Manila.
On Sunday, the typhoon was packing maximum sustained winds of 195 kilometres per hour and gusts of up to 240 km/h as it barrelled towards central Vietnam and Hainan Island in China, the weather bureau said.
The Philippine archipelago is hit by an average of 20 tropical cyclones every year.
Update 3:The Pioneer carried this AP report on December 21:
375 dead, 56 missing after typhoon slams Philippines
The death toll from the strongest typhoon to batter the Philippines this year climbed to 375, with more than 50 others still missing and several central provinces struggling with downed communications and power outages and pleading for food and water, officials said Monday.
At its strongest, Typhoon Rai packed sustained winds of 195 kilometers (121 miles) per hour with gusts of up to 270 kph (168 mph) before blowing out into the South China Sea on Friday.
At least 375 people were killed, 56 were missing and 500 were injured, according to the national police. The toll may still increase because several towns and villages remained out of reach due to downed communications and power outages, although massive cleanup and repair efforts were underway. Many were killed by falling trees and collapsing walls, flash floods and landslides. A 57-year-old man was found dead hanging from a tree branch and a woman was blown away and died in Negros Occidental province, police said.
Governor Arlene Bag-ao of Dinagat Islands, among the southeastern provinces first hit by the typhoon, said Rai's ferocity on her island province of more than 130,000 people was worse than that of Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful and deadliest typhoons on record which devastated the central Philippines in November 2013 but did not inflict any casualties in Dinagat. "If it was like being in a washing machine before, this time there was like a huge monster that smashed itself everywhere, grabbed anything like trees and tin roofs and then hurled them everywhere," Bag-ao said by telephone. "The wind was swirling north to south to east and west repeatedly for six hours. Some tin roof sheets were blown away and then were tossed back." At least 14 villagers died and more than 100 others were injured by flying roofs, debris and glass shards and were treated in makeshift surgery rooms in damaged hospitals in Dinagat, Bag-ao said.
Many more would have died if thousands of residents had not been evacuated from high-risk villages. Dinagat and several other typhoon-hit provinces remained without electricity and communications and many residents needed construction materials, food and water. Bag-ao and other provincial officials traveled to nearby regions that had cellphone signals to seek aid and coordinate recovery efforts with the national government.
"We have about 50% of the world's wealth but only 6.3% of its population. This disparity is particularly great as between ourselves and the peoples of Asia. In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security. To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world-benefaction."
~ US State Department, 1948
- George Kennan
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Comment: Update: The Guardian carries this AFP report on December 18: Update 2: The Newastle Herald carried this Australian Associated Press report on December 19: Update 3:The Pioneer carried this AP report on December 21: