Typhoon Koppu leads 11 dead

Typhoon Koppu, which hit the Philippines, on weekend was reported to have caused widespread devastation in Northern and Central provinces of the country.

Red Cross Bravo team had rescued 64 people in Barangay Sumakab since 3 a.m. on Monday and volunteers using boats and bangkas continued to rescue residents as many families remained stranded in their homes.

The slow-moving typhoon has killed at least two people and forced more than 16,000 from their homes.

By yesterday afternoon, the typhoon had veered toward the north from its westward course and was tracked over mountainous Nueva Vizcaya province with sustained winds of 93mph and gusts of up to 115 miles per hour, according to the government’s weather agency.

Henry Velarde, vice mayor of Jaen town in Nueva Ecija province, north of Manila, said: “We haven’t reached many areas”.

According to Nigel Lontoc of the Office of Civil Defense, among the affected areas which included Nueva Ecija, there was serious flood that caused a awful havoc for the villagers.

When a swollen river swamped the villages, residents scrambled to safety but many failed to save their poultry and farm animals.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said that a few 203,267 people, or 42,097 families, were affected by Typhoon Koppu – locally known as “Lando” – on the populous island of Luzon as of Monday morning. “All the rice stalks were flattened in one direction”.

A teenager was killed by a fallen tree in Manila which also injured four others.

The death toll from Koppu rose to 22 as more reports came in from northern Philippines, Agence France-Presse reported.

“We’re asking our countrymen not to become complacent”, said Alexander Pama, who heads the government’s disaster-response agency, citing how rainwater could cascade down mountainsides after Koppu passed and flood villages. More than 7,300 people died after the country took a direct hit from Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful storms on record.

Koppu, the 24th typhoon of the year, is predicted to affect Taiwan and along the coastline of Fujian and Guangdong Provinces between October 23rd and 24th after bashing the Philippines.