One of the strongest typhoons to hit the Philippines this year barrelled across the south of the country on Tuesday, killing at least five people and forcing more than 50,000 to flee.
Typhoon Bopha hit the Davao region at dawn. Gusts of wind of up to 120 miles an hour ripped roofs from homes and a 300-mile wide band of rain flooded low-lying farmland. The storm toppled trees, triggered landslides and sent flash floods surging across the region's mountains and valleys.
In the gold-mining province of Compostela Valley, three children were killed after their house was hit by boulders and mud during a landslide. Grieving relatives wrapped their bodies in blankets and placed them on a basketball court in Maparat village.
"The only thing we could do was to save ourselves. It was too late for us to rescue them," said Valentin Pabilana, who survived the landslide.
In nearby Davao Oriental, a poor agricultural and gold-mining province about 620 miles southeast of Manila, an elderly woman was killed when her house was struck by a tree, said Benito Ramos, an ex-army general who now heads the government's disaster-response agency.
A man died a few hours later when a tree knocked him down while he was riding his scooter on a road in Misamis Oriental province, Ramos said.
He said the death toll was expected to rise once soldiers and police reached far-flung villages cut off by fallen trees and floods.
Regional disaster-response officer Liza Maso said she was trying to confirm an army report that a flash flood washed away a truck carrying an undetermined number of people in New Bataan town, also in Compostela Valley.
Some 20 typhoons and storms normally lash the archipelago nation each year but the southern provinces are unaccustomed to such fierce weather. A rare storm that took the area by surprise last December killed more than 1,200 people and left many more homeless.
Officials were taking no chances this year, and on Monday the president, Benigno Aquino III, appealed for people in Bopha's path to move to safety and take storm warnings seriously.
"This typhoon is not a joke," Aquino said after meeting disaster-response officials. "But we can minimise the damage and loss of lives if we help each other," he added.
Aquino outlined preparations, including evacuations and the deployment of army search and rescue boats in advance. Authorities also ordered small boats and ferries not to venture out along the country's eastern seaboard, warning of rough seas with waves of up to four metres high.
In Compostela Valley, authorities halted mining operations and ordered evacuations to prevent a repeat of deadly losses from landslides and the collapse of mine tunnels seen in previous storms.
Bopha, a Cambodian word for flower or a girl, is the 16th weather disturbance to hit the Philippines this year. Forecasters say at least one more storm may hit before Christmas.
Tuesday 4 December 2012
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/04/philippine-typhoon-bopha-kills-five