CEBU, Philippines: The death toll from Typhoon Kalmaegi in the central Philippines climbed past 140 on Thursday as the devastating impact on Cebu province became clearer after the worst flooding in recent memory.
The national civil defense office confirmed 114 reported deaths, though that tally did not include an additional 28 recorded by Cebu provincial authorities. A further 127 were also reported missing.
Floodwaters described as unprecedented had rushed through the province’s towns and cities a day earlier, sweeping away cars, riverside shanties and even massive shipping containers.
Cebu spokesman Rhon Ramos said that 35 bodies had been recovered from flooded areas of Liloan, a town that is part of provincial capital Cebu City’s metro area. The grim news brought the toll for Cebu to 76.
On neighboring Negros Island, at least 12 people were dead and 12 more were missing after Kalmaegi’s driving rain loosened volcanic mudflow which then buried homes in Canlaon City, police Lt. Stephen Polinar said.
“Eruptions of Kanlaon volcano since last year deposited volcanic material on its upper sections. When the rain fell, those deposits rumbled down onto the villages,” he said.
Only one Negros death had been included in an earlier government tally of 17 deaths outside Cebu.
That figure included six crewmembers of a military helicopter that crashed while on a typhoon relief mission.
‘The water was raging’
AFP reporters spoke with residents of Cebu’s most-affected areas on Wednesday as they cleaned up streets that had been rivers a day before.
“Around four or five in the morning, the water was so strong that you couldn’t even step outside,” said Reynaldo Vergara, 53, adding that everything in his small shop in Mandaue had been lost when a nearby river overflowed.
“Nothing like this has ever happened. The water was raging.”
In nearby Talisay, where an informal settlement along a riverbank was washed away, AFP found 26-year-old Regie Mallorca already at work rebuilding his home.
“This will take time because I don’t have the money yet. It will take months,” he said as he mixed cement and sand atop the rubble.
The area around Cebu City was deluged with 183 millimeters (seven inches) of rain in the 24 hours before Kalmaegi’s landfall, well over its 131-millimeter monthly average, weather specialist Charmagne Varilla said.
On Tuesday, provincial governor Pamela Baricuatro called the situation “unprecedented” and “devastating.”
Scientists warn that storms are becoming more powerful due to human-driven climate change. Warmer oceans allow typhoons to strengthen rapidly, and a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, meaning heavier rainfall.
In total, nearly 800,000 people were moved from the typhoon’s path.
Seeing ghosts
The catastrophic loss of life in Cebu comes as the public seethes over a scandal involving so-called ghost flood-control projects believed to have cost taxpayers billions of dollars.
On Wednesday, governor Baricuatro suggested a connection between the corruption scandal and what her spokesman later called “unusual” flooding in a cluster of subdivisions.
“You begin to ask the question why we’re having terrible flash floods here when you have Ph26.6 billion ($452 million) for flood control projects (in the national budget),” she said in an interview with local outlet ABS-CBN.
“Definitely we have seen projects here... that I would say are ghost projects,” she said, adding her inspection team had not seen a single structure built to government standards.
A spokesperson at the Department of Public Works and Highways, the government entity at the center of the scandal, said that department head Vince Dizon was already in Cebu to inspect typhoon damage.
“After his inspection there, maybe he will comment,” they said.
More storms coming
The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, routinely striking disaster-prone areas where millions live in poverty.
The archipelagic country has already reached that average with Kalmaegi, weather specialist Varilla said, adding at least “three to five more” storms could be expected by December’s end.
The Philippines was hit by two major storms in September, including Super Typhoon Ragasa, which tore the roofs off buildings on its way to killing 14 people in nearby Taiwan.
By 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Kalmaegi was moving westwards over the South China Sea and toward Vietnam, where authorities have warned it could compound the damage of a week of flooding that has already killed dozens of people.
