MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A powerful typhoon that battered the central Philippines left at least 12 people dead in massive floods that trapped residents on roofs and damaged buildings including a hotel and an airport, officials said.
Typhoon Rai slightly weakened after slamming ashore Thursday on the country’s southeastern coast but still packed destructive and deadly winds of 150 kilometers (93 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 205 (127 mph). Meteorologists said it was moving away into the South China Sea on Friday.
Officials were assessing the damage and casualties wrought by one of the strongest typhoons to hit the country in recent years but said efforts were hampered by widespread power outages, downed communications and roads clogged with fallen trees and debris.
Witnesses described ferocious winds that ripped off roofs and forced down trees.
Workers were clearing roads in the coastal city of nearly half a million people, which remained without power and struggled with erratic cellphone signals, he said.
Eleven other people died, mostly after being hit by fallen trees, collapsed walls and ceilings and debris, and seven villagers were missing, Ricardo Jalad, who heads the government’s disaster-response agency, told President Rodrigo Duterte in a televised meeting. A large number of houses and buildings, including an airport and a hotel, were damaged by the wind or inundated by floodwaters, officials said.
At least 62 cities and towns either lost power entirely or were experiencing disruptions.
About 20 storms and typhoons batter the Philippines each year. The archipelago is located in the seismically active Pacific “Ring of Fire” region, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.