Typhoon kills 1, cuts power in wide areas of Philippines

And 226,000 individuals remained in storm shelters, the national catastrophe council stated.

Two of the victims drowned in floods, one died due to hypothermia and another died after he was hit by flying debris, the officials said on Tuesday.

Nine people have been killed so far and hundreds have spent the night huddled on their roofs as floods inundated villages, the British news agency quoted Phillipino disaster officials as saying on Wednesday.

Typhoon Nona (international name: Melor), has weakened slightly and is now over the South China Sea.

The death toll climbed to 11 on Wednesday after native authorities in Mindoro and neighbouring Romblon, a sequence of three small islands recognized for its marble reserves, reported six deaths.

In a statement yesterday afternoon, the company said a number of transmission lines and facilities in Quezon, Camarines Sur, Samar, and Albay had been restored. We shut all establishments.

Governor added: “What we are asking for is the early restoration of electricity because the entire province of 1.2 million people is without power”.

“We are continuously monitoring the situations in the field through the reports from our chapters and assessment teams in the field who will be moving from Samar to Albay and Sorsogon to give us first-hand reports on the priority needs of the affected communities”, said Richard Gordon, Chairman of the Philippine Red Cross.

Ms. Marasigan, for her part, told AFP the government’s “target is to restore power by Christmas, but it will still depend on many factors”. Power outages also occurred in Bulan and the surrounding areas.

“Mindoro situation is being closely monitored due to continuous rains”, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a text message. “The NDRRMC will coordinate with local DRRMCs on when those in evacuation centers may be allowed to return to their homes”.

On Dec. 15, 2015 at 0900 UTC (4 a.m. EST) Typhoon Melor was still a Category four tropical cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson scale with maximum sustained winds of about 115 knots (132 mph/213 kph).

Public storm warning signal No. 3 was raised over the Calamian group of Islands and the provinces of Oriental Mindoro and Occidental Mindoro, including Lubang Island. It made a first landfall Monday morning on Batag Island in the eastern Philippines and will likely make a second landfall in Sorsogan province.

The typhoon also caused severe damage in several provinces where most houses built of light materials were unroofed or destroyed. The Flight Services Station Tower, Air Navigation Service Powerhouse, weather instrument, signages and perimeter fence were partially damaged.

The weather bureau forecasts Nona to be out of the Philippine area of responsibility by Saturday morning (December 19). The low pressure area is expected to enter the Philippines early next week.

Typhoons in the Philippines are common, about 20 per year.

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

The typhoon, reminiscent of last year’s deadly Super Typhoon Haiyan as it plotted a similar path, slammed the Philippines on Monday evening, forcing 725,000 to flee their homes.