Typhoon Kalmaegi sweeps out of Philippines leaving it unscathed
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Typhoon Kalmaegi swept out of the Philippines yesterday after causing chest-deep floods in some rural areas, but largely leaving the storm-prone country unscathed, authorities said.
The storm, with winds of 160 kilometres an hour, struck the northeast of the main Philippine island of Luzon on Sunday evening, then moved west across land before heading into the South China Sea yesterday.
Three people were killed and three others remain missing after a passenger ferry sank in the central Philippines on Saturday evening amid rough weather as the storm approached.
However, officials said this was not directly linked to the typhoon, and said there had been no reports of other casualties related to the weather.
“We have no casualties ... because we gave out advance warnings and our local chief executives acted early, because we had pre-emptive evacuation and took our countrymen out of danger,” Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas said.
He described the storm as only “moderate” as it did not hit heavily populated areas extremely hard. Floods occurred mostly in the mountainous and farming northern regions of Luzon.
About 7,800 people sheltered from the typhoon in government evacuation centres and Roxas said many of them returned home soon after the storm passed.
The Philippines is on average hit by about 20 storms or typhoons each year, many of which prove to be deadly.
