The death toll from Typhoon Kalmaegi that hit the central Philippines on Tuesday has risen to 39 on the island of Cebu, a local government official said.
The deaths were as a result of drowning and people being struck by debris, provincial information officer Ainjeliz Orong said in a phone message. The powerful storm unleashed heavy rains and floods across the region, forcing thousands to evacuate.
Gwendolyn Pang, secretary-general of the Philippine Red Cross, said that an unspecified number of residents were trapped on their roofs by floodwaters in the coastal town of Liloan in Cebu, and added that cars either were submerged in floods or floated in another Cebu community.
“We have received so many calls from people asking us to rescue them from roofs and from their houses, but it's impossible,” Pang told The Associated Press on Tuesday morning. "There is so much debris, you see cars floating, so we have to wait for the flood to subside."
Cebu province was still recovering from a 6.9 magnitude earthquake on September 30 that left at least 79 people dead and displaced thousands when houses collapsed or were severely damaged.
In Eastern Samar, one of the east-central provinces first lashed by Kalmaegi early Tuesday, fierce winds either ripped off roofs or damaged about 300 mostly rural shanties on the island community of Homonhon, which is part of the town of Guiuan, but there were no reported deaths or injuries, Mayor Annaliza Gonzales Kwan said.
“There was no flooding at all, but just strong wind,” Kwan told the AP by telephone. “We're OK. We'll make it through. We've been through a lot, and bigger than this.”
In November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful tropical cyclones on record, slammed ashore in Guiuan. It then raked across the central Philippines, leaving more than 7,300 people dead or missing, flattening entire villages and sweeping scores of ships inland. Haiyan demolished about 1 million houses and displaced more than 4 million people in one of the country's poorest regions.
Before the typhoon's landfall, officials said that more than 387,000 people had evacuated to safer ground in eastern and central Philippine provinces. Authorities warned of torrential rains, potentially destructive winds and storm surges of up to three meters (nearly 10 feet).
Interisland ferries and fishing boats were prohibited from venturing into increasingly rough seas, stranding more than 3,500 passengers and cargo truck drivers in nearly 100 seaports, the coast guard said. At least 186 domestic flights were cancelled.
The Philippines is battered by about 20 typhoons and storms each year. The country is also often hit by earthquakes and has more than a dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the world's most disaster-prone countries.