Typhoon blows into Philippines, complicating disaster response after quake and storms

Buildings and trees being blown during storm (Image credits: AP)

MANILA: A typhoon blew into the northern Philippines on Friday, complicating the country’s disaster response to a deadly earthquake in a central province and two other recent storms. Typhoon Matmo blew into Dinapigue town in Isabela province from the Pacific with sustained winds up to 130 kph (81 mph) and was to blow northwestward over a vast agricultural valley and mountain provinces, where residents in some flood, and landslide prone villages were evacuating. Schools suspended classes, and cargo and fishing vessels were prohibited from entering the rough seas along the path of the typhoon. It was expected to blow into the South China Sea on Saturday on a course toward southern China, Philippine forecasters said. Hong Kong’s observatory said Matmo would pass by the territory on an expected path toward Hainan Island and the mainland’s Guangdong province over the weekend. Matmo, locally known as Paolo, was the 16th tropical cyclone to hit the Philippines this year. The Southeast Asian archipelago nation is lashed by about 20 typhoons and storms a year and lies on the seismically active Pacific “Ring of Fire,” making it one of the countries most prone to natural disasters. The typhoon was not expected to directly affect the region further south where a 6.9-magnitude earthquake Tuesday night killed at least 72 people and injured more than 550 others, mostly in the Cebu province city of Bogo and outlying towns. More than 5,000 houses were damaged, and some residents were staying in parks, grassy clearings and on sidewalks despite sporadic rain because aftershocks left them too fearful to return to their homes. Another storm, Bualoi, caused at least 37 deaths and displaced thousands in the Philippines last week before hitting Vietnam, where 49 people died and economic damages were estimated at $485 million. And Super Typhoon Ragasa, which at its peak was the world’s strongest tropical cyclone of the year, caused several deaths in the Philippines as it passed by the country before landfall in southern China.