Manila, Nov 6: Typhoon Kalmaegi has left at least 85 people dead with 75 others missing in the central Philippines, many in widespread flooding that trapped people on their roofs and swept away cars in a hard-hit province still recovering from a deadly earthquake, officials said Wednesday.Among the dead were six people who were killed when a Philippine air force helicopter crashed in the southern province of Agusan del Sur on Tuesday. The crew was on its way to provide humanitarian help to provinces battered by Kalmaegi, the military said. It did not give the cause of the crash.
Kalmaegi blew away from western Palawan province into the South China Sea before noon Wednesday with sustained winds of up to 130 kph (81 mph) and gusts of up to 180 kph (112 mph), according to forecasters.
Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV, deputy administrator of the Office of Civil Defence, and provincial officials said many of the deaths were reported in the central province of Cebu, which was pummeled by Kalmaegi on Tuesday, setting off flash floods and causing a river and other waterways to swell.
The resulting flooding engulfed residential communities, forcing startled residents to climb on their roofs, where they desperately pleaded to be rescued as the floodwaters rose, officials said.
The Philippine Red Cross received many calls from people needing rescue in Cebu from their roofs, its secretary-general Gwendolyn Pang said Tuesday.
At least 49 people drowned in floods, and others died as a result of landslides and falling debris in Cebu, where 13 people were reported missing, the Office of Civil Defence said.
It added that 62 others were reported missing in the central provinces of Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental, which are located near Cebu.
“We did everything we could for the typhoon, but, you know, there are really some unexpected things like flash floods,” Cebu Gov. Pamela Baricuatro told The Associated Press by telephone.
Caloy Ramirez, a volunteer rescuer, said the massive flooding set off by the typhoon turned an upscale riverside residential community in Cebu City on Tuesday into an unrecognisable scene of tumbled SUVs and houses in disarray.
Residents said floodwater engulfed the first floors of their houses in just a few minutes, sending them scrambling to upper floors or roofs in panic.