As Typhoon Vongfong hits Philippines, coronavirus social distancing enforced at emergency shelters
- A man bled to death after he was hit by glass shards in a school building he was trying to open to take shelter in
- Over 145,000 have fled their homes, but evacuations have been slowed by Covid-19 restrictions, and shelters being used as quarantine facilities
Typhoon Vongfong’s ferocious wind and rain left at least one dead and damaged hundreds of coronavirus isolation facilities and homes, along with rice and corn fields in five hard-hit eastern towns alone, a governor said on Friday.
Governor Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar province, where the typhoon slammed ashore, said some residents were weeping in desperation after their houses were destroyed or blown away in the towns he inspected. One distraught villager who lost his home slashed his wrist but was treated in time, he said.
A man bled to death after he was hit by glass shards in a school building he was trying to open to take shelter in, Evardone said.
“The damage I saw was very extensive. The roof of one church was ripped off completely, its iron bars twisted badly by the typhoon,” Evardone said by telephone.
He said that he and his group of military, police and local authorities failed to travel to two towns hit by the typhoon, Jipapad and Maslog, due to fallen trees on the road. Mobile phone and two-way radio communications to the far-flung areas were down and Evardone appealed to the military to deploy a helicopter to inspect and carry out food drops if army troops were not be able to reach the area by Saturday.