At least 52 people have died and 13 are missing due to the impact of the Typhoon Kalmaegi in the Philippines, where nearly 437,000 people had to be evacuated, authorities reported, as it entered the South China Sea this Wednesday, heading towards Vietnam, with sustained winds of 130 kilometers per hour.
More than 706,000 people in 241 municipalities have been affected as the typhoon has crossed the Asian archipelago through its central part, the Visayas, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).
The typhoon made landfall at midnight on Monday near the town of Silago (east) and severely hit Cebuwhere, according to local media, more than 40 deaths have occurred, and several towns have been completely flooded, while vehicles have been swept away by the floods caused.
Cebu was already hit in October by a 6.9 magnitude earthquake in which at least 72 people died.
On the morning of this Wednesday it crossed the island of Palawan (west) and is in the coastal waters of El Nido – one of the main tourist destinations in the Philippines – before entering the South China Sea in a few hours to head towards Vietnam, according to the Zoom.earth platform.
The Philippine Meteorological Agency (Pagasa) warns that “there is a high risk of life-threatening and destructive storm surgewith maximum heights exceeding three meters in the next 24 hours, in the low-lying or exposed coastal communities of Palawan.”
The meteorological service of southern China’s Hainan Province issued a level four alert on Tuesday for the approach of Kalmaegi.
The Philippines experiences about 20 typhoons and tropical storms a year, especially in the rainy season, which usually begins in June and ends in November or December.