MANILA, Nov. (AP) A Philippine Air Force helicopter with five people on board crashed Monday in the country’s south while flying to help respond to the devastation caused by Typhoon Kalmaegi, which has already killed at least five people and caused widespread flooding that trapped residents on the roofs of some villages in the city center.
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A Super Huey helicopter crashed near the town of Loreto in the southern province of Agusan del Sur, and efforts are underway to locate air force personnel on board who were deployed to help provide humanitarian aid to the typhoon-hit provinces, the Eastern Mindanao Military Command said in a statement.
Military officials did not immediately provide additional details about the crash, including the condition of the five airmen on board and what may have caused the crash.
Kalmaegi was last seen over the coastal waters of the city of Jordan in central Guimaras province with sustained winds of 130 km/h (81 mph) and gusts of up to 180 km/h (112 mph). It is forecast to blow into the South China Sea late Tuesday or early Wednesday after hitting the western province of Palawan.
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An elderly villager drowned in flooding in southern Leyte, where a province-wide power outage was also reported, and another person died after being hit by a fallen tree in central Bohol province, officials said.
Another three people died in central Cebu province, where authorities reported flooding in several towns and villages.
Gwendolyn Pang, secretary general of the Philippine Red Cross, said an unspecified number of residents were trapped on roofs by floodwaters in the coastal town of Liloan, Cebu, adding that cars were either submerged in floodwaters or floated in another Cebu community.
“We have received so many calls from people asking us to rescue them from the roofs and from their houses, but it is impossible,” Pang told the AP 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 the September 30 magnitude 6.9 earthquake that left at least 79 dead and thousands displaced as houses collapsed or were severely damaged.
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In Eastern Samar, one of the east central provinces that Kalmaegi first lashed early Tuesday, strong winds either tore off roofs or damaged about 300 mostly rural shacks on the island community of Homonhon, part of Guiuan city, but no deaths or injuries were reported, Mayor Annaliza Gonzales Kwan said.
“There was no flooding, just strong winds,” Kwan told the Associated Press by phone. “We’re okay. We’ll make it. We’ve been through a lot and bigger than this.”
In November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest tropical cyclones on record, made landfall in Guiuan. It then swept across the central Philippines, leaving more than 7,300 people dead or missing, leveling entire villages and sweeping dozens of ships inland. Haiyan destroyed about a million homes and displaced more than 4 million people in one of the country’s poorest regions.
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Before the typhoon made landfall, disaster response officials said more than 387,000 people had been evacuated to safer areas in the eastern and central provinces of the Philippines. Authorities warned of torrential rain, potentially damaging winds and storm surges of up to three meters (nearly 10 feet).
Interisland ferries and fishing boats were not allowed to enter the still rough seas, stranding more than 3,500 passengers and truck drivers at nearly 100 seaports, the Coast Guard said. At least 186 domestic flights were cancelled.
About 20 typhoons and storms hit the Philippines every year. The country is also frequently hit by earthquakes and has more than a dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world. (AP) SKS SKS
Key things
- A Philippine Air Force helicopter with five people on board crashed on Monday.
- A Super Huey helicopter crashed near the town of Loreto in the southern province of Agusan del Sur.
- About 20 typhoons and storms hit the Philippines every year.
