Manila:Another tropical storm barrelled across Philippine islands on Friday, causing at least four deaths and the evacuations of more than 433,000 people from landslide- and flood-prone villages long battered by typhoons.
Bualoi, which has weakened since making landfall overnight, was the latest of back-to-back storms from the Pacific to threaten Asia. Typhoon Ragasa, one of the strongest to hit in years, caused at least 25 deaths in the northern Philippines and
Taiwan, mostly from flooding, before making landfall in China and dissipating over Vietnam.
Bualoi made landfall in the Philippine town of San Policarpo in Eastern Samar province late Thursday with sustained winds of 110 kph (68 mph), knocking out power in east-central provinces and setting off flooding and two minor landslides, the country’s disaster-mitigation agency said.
More than 433,000 were evacuated to government emergency shelters as the storm approached, including in Albay province, where villagers on the foothills of Mayon, one of the country’s most active volcanoes, were asked to move to safety due to possible volcanic mudflows, Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV from the civil defence office told reporters.
The four deaths were in the central island province of Masbate. Three were hit separately by a falling tree, a collapsed wall and falling debris and a fourth was hit by lightning Thursday night, officials said.
“We need clearing operations because most of our road networks are not really passable for food and health assistance to pass,” Masbate Gov. Ricardo Kho told a
news conference.