Typhoon kills eight, displaces nearly 18,000

More than a dozen ferry trips and nearly 50 domestic flights were cancelled as the storm hit on Sunday, cutting off electricity in eight northern provinces.

Kalmaegi was packing maximum winds of 120 kilometres per hour and gusts of up to 150 kph, the weather bureau said. 

Schools were closed in Manila and northern provinces, where 17,633 people were forced to flee their homes, the national disaster reliefagency said. At least eight people died when a ferry sank on Saturday evening in rough seas off the eastern province of Leyte, the navy said.

Three bodies were recovered shortly after the accident, five more were retrieved on Monday by navy ships, navy Lt-Commander Marineth Domingo said.

“The five cadavers included an infant girl,” she said.

Rescuers saved 113 people from the boat that was en route to the southern city of Surigao. In Manila, 15 crew members were rescued from a docked vessel that capsized after being battered by strong winds and big waves on Sunday evening. The ship was undergoing repairs at the Manila port. Seven of the crewmembers boarded a life raft, while the rest swam towards the shore,the office said.

Kalmaegi left some roads and bridges impassable in the northern Philippines.

The weather bureau said the typhoon, which blew out of thePhilippines on Monday, would bring more trailing rains to the northern provinces, while the seas would continue to be rough.