At least 46 killed as Typhoon Kalmegi hits Philippines | Weather news

A Philippine military helicopter crashed during a search and rescue operation, killing all six on board.

The death toll from Typhoon Kalmaegi in the Philippines has risen to 46, including six aboard a military helicopter, as the powerful storm brought heavy rains and floods to the country’s central region.

On Tuesday, flood waters left many people on their roofs and cars inundated, and entire towns on the island of Cebu were inundated.

At least 39 people were killed in the central province of Cebu, local officials said. One person was reported dead on the nearby island of Bohol.

The military said the Huey helicopter went down in Agusan del Sur on the island of Mindanao, where it was conducting a humanitarian disaster response mission. Six bodies of the crew have been recovered and investigations are on.

Within 24 hours of Typhoon Kalmagi, locally known as Tino, razed to the ground Before midnight on Monday, the area around the provincial capital Cebu City was inundated with 183 millimeters (seven inches) of rain, above the 131-millimetre monthly average, state meteorologist Charmagne Varilla told AFP.

“The water rose very fast,” Don del Rosario, 28, told newswire AFP in Cebu City. “By 4:00 a.m., it was already uncontrollable – people couldn’t get out (of their homes).”

“I’ve been here 28 years and this is the worst experience I’ve ever had.”

Provincial Governor Pamela Barricuetro called the situation in Cebu “unprecedented” in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

“We were expecting the wind to be the dangerous part, but … the water is really putting our people at risk,” Barricuetro said on Facebook. “Flood water is just devastating.”

Although the typhoon gradually lost strength on Tuesday, with sustained winds of 120km/h (74.5mph) and gusts of 165km/h (102.5mph), it was moving over northern Palawan and the Visayas islands heading towards the South China Sea.

Thousands of residents were evacuated from the Visayas region, including southern Luzon and parts of northern Mindanao, officials said. The typhoon was expected to leave the Philippines late Wednesday or early Thursday.

“Due to interaction with terrain, Tino may weaken slightly as it crosses the Visayas. However, typhoon intensity is expected throughout the country,” state weather agency PAGASA said in a morning bulletin.

The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons every year, regularly hitting disaster-prone areas where millions of people live in poverty. The Philippines was hit by two major typhoons in September Super Typhoon Ragasawhich killed at least three people and forced thousands to evacuate villages and schools in the northern Philippines.

An earthquake is expected to hit central Vietnam on Thursday night, which has already suffered severe flooding that has killed at least 40 people and left six others missing in the past week.