Electricity Cut, Three Dead as Typhoon Hits Philippines

Local Editor

Typhoon Melor carved through the central Philippines on Tuesday bringing heavy rain and strong winds that left millions without power and at least three people dead.

One person died of hypothermia while two others drowned in floods in the poor fishing town of Catarman in Northern Samar province in the Visayas region south of Manila.

Furthermore, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council [NDRRMC] said the storm toppled trees and cut electricity to at least seven provinces.

People who fled from their coastal homes spent a sleepless night in evacuation centers, sprawled on classroom tables and chairs as flying debris swirled around outside.

Melor whipped the vast Bicol peninsula, with a population of 5.4 million people, overnight before slamming into the Romblon Islands on Tuesday morning.

Gusts weakened somewhat by Tuesday morning but were still recorded at 170 kilometers per hour from 185 kilometers per hour recorded on Monday.

Meanwhile, authorities were assessing Melor's damage while bracing for another typhoon brewing east of Mindanao, the country's main southern island, according to the NDRRMC.

Consequently, bad weather forced the cancellation of 16 domestic flights on Tuesday, adding to the 56 flights cancelled on Monday.

The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 typhoons a year, many of them deadly, with the strongest happening towards the end of the year.

The last deadly storm to hit the country this year, Koppu, killed 54 people and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes after it pummeled rice-growing Northern provinces in October.

Earlier in November 2013, one of the strongest typhoons on record, Haiyan, flattened entire communities in the central region with tsunami-like waves, leaving 7,350 people dead or at least missing.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team