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Mangkhut leaves death, destruction and chaos from Philippines to China
Mangkhut causes death and destruction, from Philippines to China
(about 5 hours later)
Mangkhut has weakened from a typhoon to a tropical storm as it moved deeper into southern China, leaving death and destruction from Hong Kong to the Philippines.
At least 34 bodies have been recovered and another 30 people are still missing after a landslide caused by Typhoon Mangkhut buried a bunkhouse in the Philippines where dozens of miners had taken shelter.
The storm was still affecting southern China’s coast and the provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan and rain and strong winds were expected to continue through Tuesday.
The landslide struck in Itogon in the mountain province of Benguet, which was one of the worst hit areas by the category 5 typhoon that swept through the Philippine region of Luzon on Saturday, wreaking destruction on homes and crops, and causing massive landslides and flooding.
Hong Kong residents were told to stay away from the coastline and be on alert for occasional gales. Bus, ferry and rail services were suspended and almost 900 flights were canceled at the city’s airport, one of the world’s busiest. The South China Morning Post said Hong Kong’s hospitals had to use backup power due to outages caused by the storm.
Over 60 miners had taken refuge in a former warehouse bunkhouse, now converted into a chapel, at the height of the typhoon. However, when the storm hit, part of the mountain collapsed on top of the building, enveloping it in mud and trapping those inside.
Mangkhut earlier lashed the Philippines, sparking landslides and building collapses that killed at least 65 people, with another 43 missing. Authorities reported four deaths from falling trees and building materials in Guangdong, China’s manufacturing hub.
There have been mixed reports about the exact body count from the landslide. At least 34 people are confirmed dead, according to Philippine defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana. He said at least 30 people are still missing, adding that rescue teams were working “as fast as they can. There might still be survivors.”
As of Monday morning Mangkhut was on track to pass over the Guangxi regional capital of Nanning and move toward the border with tourism powerhouse Yunnan province.
But according to the presidential spokesman Harry Roque, at least 43 bodies have been pulled from the mud.
The Hong Kong Observatory reported Mangkhut was the most powerful cyclone to hit the city since 1979, packing maximum sustained gusts of 195 kilometers per hour (121 mph).
Ricardo Jalad, the Philippines civil defence chief, told the Guardian rescuers were racing to try and find survivors in the mud.
Typhoon Mangkhut barreled into southern China after lashing the Philippines with strong winds and heavy rain that caused landslides feared to have buried dozens.
“The military and the police are supported by rescue teams, engineers, and geologists,” he said. “We have augmented personnel in the area in order to manage their response operations.”
More than 2.4 million people had been evacuated in southern China’s Guangdong province by Sunday evening to flee the typhoon, state media said. “Prepare for the worst,” Hong Kong security minister John Lee Ka-chiu urged residents.
The environment secretary, Roy Cimatu, flew to the area on Monday to investigate what had happened. “We will not stop until we will recover [people] – whether they are still alive – in the mining area in the place of that incident,” he said.
That warning followed Mangkhut’s devastating march through the northern Philippines on Saturday with sustained winds of 205km (127 miles) per hour. Landslides caused by the pounding storm hit two villages in Itogon town in the mountain province of Benguet.
The mayor of Itogon, Victorio Palangdan, said the local police had tried to make the miners, who were working on the disused gold mine illegally, leave the bunkhouse before the typhoon hit but they had refused. “They thought they were really safe there,” the Mayor said on Sunday.
Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan told The Associated Press by phone that at the height of the typhoon’s onslaught Saturday afternoon, dozens of people, mostly miners and their families, rushed into an old three-story building in the village of Ucab.
At least 64 people have been confirmed dead in the Philippines, with the death toll expected to rise, and an estimated total of 5.7 million people in the country are thought to have been affected by the storm. The livelihoods of thousands has been devastated as crops were flooded just a few weeks before the harvest.
The building — a former mining bunkhouse that had been transformed into a chapel — was obliterated when part of a mountain slope collapsed. Three villagers who managed to escape told authorities what happened.
The storm hit the densely populated southern coast of China on Sunday night. More than 2.4 million people were evacuated, and four people have died, according to Chinese state media. The storm is now headed for the Yunnan province, a popular tourist area.
“They thought they were really safe there,” the mayor said Sunday. He expressed sadness that the villagers, many of them poor, had few options to survive in a region where big corporations have profited immensely from gold mines.
The Hong Kong Observatory said Mangkhut was the most powerful cyclone to hit the city since 1979.
The rescue work halted for the night before resuming Monday morning. Men used pikes and shovels to dig into the mud since the soaked ground was unstable and limited the use of heavy equipment on site.
Mangkhut made landfall in the Guangdong city of Taishan at 5pm on Sunday, packing wind speeds of 162 kilometers (100 miles) per hour. State television broadcaster CGTN reported that surging waves flooded a seaside hotel in the city of Shenzhen.
The storm shattered glass windows on commercial skyscrapers in Hong Kong, sending sheets of paper pouring out of the buildings, fluttering and spiraling as they headed for the debris-strewn ground, according to videos on social media.
Mangkhut also felled trees, tore scaffolding off buildings under construction and flooded some areas of Hong Kong with waist-high waters, according to the South China Morning Post.
Casinos on Macau were ordered closed for the first time due to the typhoon.
