Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr declared a state of emergency on Thursday after Typhoon Kalmaegi left at least 241 people dead and missing in central provinces in the deadliest natural disaster to hit the country this year.
Kalmaegi left at least 114 people dead, mostly from drowning in flash floods, and 127 missing, many in the hard-hit central province of Cebu, before the tropical cyclone blew out of the archipelago on Wednesday into the South China Sea.
The typhoon’s onslaught, which affected nearly 2 million people, displaced more than 560,000 villagers, including nearly 450,000 who were evacuated to emergency shelters.
Marcos’s emergency declaration, made during a meeting with disaster-response officials to assess the typhoon’s aftermath, would allow the government to disburse emergency funds faster and prevent food hoarding and overpricing.
The storm that devastated the country's central regions regained strength as it headed towards Vietnam.
In Vietnam's Gia Lai province, some 350,000 people were expected to have been evacuated by the middle of the day as authorities warned of heavy rains and damaging winds that could cause flooding in low-lying areas and disrupt agricultural activity.
The country’s financial hub, Ho Chi Minh City, faces a heightened risk of severe flooding as high tides would coincide with the expected heavy rainfall from the typhoon, forecasters warned.
High tides are expected on the Saigon River, while parts of the city could see up to 100 millimetres (4 inches) of rain, which authorities warned could inundate low-lying areas.
"The challenge now is debris clearing... These need to be cleared immediately, not only to account for the missing who may be among the debris or may have reached safe areas but also to allow relief operations to move forward," Raffy Alejandro, a senior civil defence official, told DZBB radio.
The devastation from Kalmaegi, the 20th storm to hit the Philippines this year, comes just over a month after a magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck northern Cebu, killing dozens and displacing thousands.
As Kalmaegi moved over the South China Sea ahead of its landfall in Vietnam, it was regaining strength. It is forecast to impact several central provinces, including key coffee-growing areas, where the harvest season is currently underway.
Vietnam's aviation authorities said operations at eight airports, including the international airport in Da Nang, are likely to be affected. Airlines and local authorities have been urged to closely monitor the storm's progress to ensure passenger safety.
