Heavy flooding as Philippine typhoon death toll climbs to 9

Gusts had weakened somewhat but were still recorded at 170 kilometres per hour, down from 185 kilometres per hour on Monday.

Typhoon Melor – locally known as Nona – slammed western Mindoro province Tuesday morning after wreaking havoc in the eastern part of the archipelago following its landfall Monday morning.

Dark clouds blanket Manila as typhoon Melor cuts across the northern part of the Philippines Dec. 15.

“This is going to be a sad Christmas for us”, said governor Umali.

Typhoon Melor was plotting a similar path as the category 5 typhoon Haiyan, which had battered the central Philippines in 2013 killing around 8,000 people.

All of the deaths resulting from the storm occurred in the Northern Samar province, where two people drowned in floods, one died because of hypothermia, and another person was killed by flying debris.

Christmas is the most celebrated holiday in the Philippines, where 80 per cent of its 100 million people are Catholic, and decorations such as colourful lights and lanterns have already been put up in most towns.

“The floods have begun to subside but there are still people on their roofs”.

The death toll climbed after authorities on Mindoro, a large farming island of 1.2 million roughly 120 kilometres south of the capital, reported five people had died there. The storm was expected to weaken further as it heads to Mindoro Island and out into the South China Sea, state weather forecaster Aldczar Aurelio said.

“What we are asking for is the early restoration of electricity”, he said.

“It may take three to four months to restore power in the province after power lines and electricity posts were toppled by strong winds”, Baldo said.

The national disaster management agency said 733,153 people were evacuated before the typhoon hit, and officials said that averted more casualties.

An average of 20 storms and typhoons hit the Philippines each year.

Authorities were assessing damage while bracing for another typhoon east of Mindanao, the country’s main southern island.

Wide areas of the central Philippines were plunged into darkness as the powerful storm made landfall on Tuesday, causing flooding, storm surges and forcing nearly 800,000 people to evacuate their homes, according to Reuters.

The last deadly storm to hit the country this year, Koppu, killed 54 people and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes after it pummeled rice-growing northern provinces in October.