Tropical Cyclone Kompasu causes deaths, landslides, flooding in Philippines
- The storm drenched Luzon as it swept across the country towards the South China Sea. It will head past Hong Kong in the direction of Hainan
- Disaster officials said at least 11 were killed and seven missing in flash flooding and landslides
Severe Tropical Storm Kompasu drenched swathes of the most populous island of Luzon on Monday as it swept across the archipelago nation towards the South China Sea. Nearly 1,600 people were evacuated.
Six people, including three children, were killed in four separate landslides that buried houses in the northern province of Benguet, where two were still missing, the national disaster agency said.
Hong Kong school classes cancelled as Observatory readies No 8 typhoon signal
Fallen rocks, uprooted trees and loosened soil blocked a main highway going up to Baguio, the mountain resort city in Benguet.
Muddy floodwaters reached the second floor of houses in some areas, while fruit and vegetable farms in the city’s outskirts were also swamped, local officials said.
Five people drowned in flash floods in nearby Cagayan province and the western province of Palawan. Five more were missing in floods in two towns in Palawan, the agency added.
Mark Timbal, a spokesman for the disaster agency, said that while Palawan was not directly in the path of Kompasu, it was also affected because the storm enhanced the southwest monsoon.
Kompasu was packing maximum sustained winds of 100km/h and gusts of up to 125km/h as it moved away from the northern Philippines, the weather bureau said.
Kompasu was expected to exit the country on Tuesday and was headed to China’s Hainan province, the bureau said.
“Within the next 36 hours, the storm is forecast to gradually intensify but is becoming less likely to reach typhoon category prior to making landfall over Hainan Island,” it said.
Philippine presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement that rescuers had been sent to affected areas.
“Support from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine Coast Guard, the Philippine National Police and the Bureau of Fire Protection are likewise mobilised and deployed,” he said.
Roque added that the Department of Social Welfare and Development had a supply for food packs enough for 370,000 people.
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The storm was on Tuesday headed towards Hong Kong, where authorities had cancelled all school classes and were expected to raise the typhoon signal No 8 in the late afternoon.
The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons every year, which typically wipe out harvests, homes and infrastructure in already impoverished areas.
The strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines was Typhoon Haiyan, which killed more than 6,300 people and displaced more than 4 million in November 2013.
Additional reporting by DPA