Typhoon Phanfone brings misery for Philippines on Christmas Day

Typhoon Phanfone pummelled the central Philippines on Christmas Day, bringing a wet and miserable holiday season to millions in the mainly Catholic nation. Police said six people were missing as the typhoon leapt from one small island to another for the second day – crumpling houses, toppling trees and blacking out cities and towns, including in popular resorts like Boracay. At the height of the festive season on Wednesday, tens of thousands were stranded at shuttered ports or evacuation centres while the rest of the region’s population cowered in rain-soaked homes. Though weaker, Phanfone was tracking a similar path as Super Typhoon Haiyan – the country’s deadliest cyclone on record which left more than 7,300 people dead or missing in 2013. Typhoon Kammuri flooding forces thousands from homes in Philippines A father, his three children and two other relatives were missing after their hut was swept away early Wednesday when heavy rain caused a creek to overflow near the town of Balasan, provincial police said. More than 16,000 people spent the night in schools, gyms and government buildings hastily converted into evacuation centres as the typhoon made landfall on Tuesday, civil defence officials said. “It was frightening. The glass windows shattered and we took cover by the stairs,” Ailyn Metran said after she and her four-year-old child spent the night at the local state weather service office where her husband worked. A metal window frame flew off and fell onto a car parked outside the building, she said. My lola's house at pandan, antique #Ursula signal no. 3 pic.twitter.com/IheHKG4Bvk — lyzandra (@leelailai) December 25, 2019 With just two hours’ sleep, the family returned to their home in the central city of Tacloban early Wednesday to find their two dogs safe, but the floor was covered in mud and a felled tree rested atop a nearby house. The weather office said the typhoon strengthened slightly overnight Tuesday and was gusting at 195km/h, velocities that can knock down small trees and destroy houses made of light materials. Survivors took to social media with pictures and videos of crushed homes, buses half-submerged in brown-coloured floods, roads strewn with tree trunks, and coconut and banana plants being shredded by ferocious winds. The typhoon hit land as millions of Filipinos trooped to once-yearly clan reunions centred on the “noche buena”, a sumptuous midnight meal that is the highlight of the Catholic nation’s holidays. More than 25,000 people trying to get home for the traditional Christmas Eve midnight dinner with their families remained stranded at ports on Christmas Day with ferry services still shut down, the coastguard said. Scores of flights to the region also remained cancelled, though the populous capital Manila, on the northern edge has so far been spared. Phanfone ravaged the north of the island of Cebu overnight Tuesday, and residents decamped from evacuation centres only to find their homes damaged, civil defence official Allen Froilan Cabaron said. Christmas in China – from Azeroth to zero interest in the festive season “They were safer at the evacuation centres. At least they were able to eat the Christmas Eve meal there, even if only tinned fish and instant noodles were available,” Cabaron said. “But even with food on the table, the atmosphere would have been different because they were not at home,” Cabaron added. “Obviously, they were unable to celebrate Christmas properly because some spent the night at evacuation centres,” rescue official Cecille Bedonia said. At the western island resort of Coron, the beaches emptied and boat tours were suspended as Western tourists stayed in their rooms to await the typhoon onslaught later Thursday. “Many of the tourist establishments here are closed, and some of our guests failed to arrive because their flights were cancelled,” hotel receptionist Nina Edano said. “We’re not scared, but the ambience here is generally gloomy,” she added. Pope leads Christmas Mass as thousands gather in Bethlehem The Philippines is the first major land mass facing the Pacific cyclone belt. As such, the archipelago gets hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, killing scores of people and wiping out harvests, homes and other infrastructure and keeping millions perennially poor. A July 2019 study by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank said the most frequent storms lop one per cent off the Philippine economic output, with the stronger ones cutting output by nearly three per cent.