Manila, Sept 29, (dpa/GNA) – Typhoon Bualoi battered the eastern Philippines with heavy rains and strong winds, leaving 10 people dead and displacing more than 433,000 individuals, officials said on Friday.
Bualoi, locally called Opong, made landfall in the province of Eastern Samar on Thursday evening, with sustained winds of up to 120 kilometres per hour (kph) and gusts of up to 165 kph, the state weather bureau said.
It made landfall five more times in the provinces of Masbate, Romblon, and Oriental Mindoro on Friday and has weakened to a severe tropical storm.
Currently, the storm is packing maximum sustained winds of up to 110 kph with gusts up to 150 kph.
Seven of the fatalities drowned in floods and storm surges in three towns in Biliran province, said Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro, deputy administrator of the national civil defence office.
In Masbate province, a 16-year-old boy was crushed by a collapsed wall, and a 30-year-old man was pinned down by a fallen tree, while a 6-year-old boy drowned, said Gremil Naz, a spokesman for the regional civil defence office.
Thirteen people, nine fishermen and four elderly individuals, who were swept by storm surges, are reported missing, Alejandro said.
The storm tore roofs off houses, toppled power lines and trees, and caused houses made from lightweight materials to collapse, social media footage showed.
Storm surges inundated coastal communities, while five fishermen who set sail before the typhoon hit, were reported missing in Masbate.
More than 330,000 of the displaced residents were from the eastern region of Bicol, while the other 100,000 were from the eastern Visayas region, and the provinces of Occidental and Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan.
Storm warnings were raised in about 30 provinces, including the capital region of Manila, as well as some areas that were recently hit by Typhoon Ragasa, which left 12 dead and nearly 25,000 people displaced.
Schools and government offices were suspended in several provinces, while sea travel was halted, leaving 9,149 passengers stranded in 119 ports in seven regions, the coast guard said.
Civil aviation authorities said over 100 domestic flights were cancelled.
GNA