PhilStar/AFP-Nov 5
More than 40 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced as rains driven by Typhoon Tino (international name: Kalmaegi) flooded swathes of the central Philippines on Tuesday. Entire towns on the island of Cebu have been inundated, while cars, trucks and even massive shipping containers could be seen swept along by muddy floodwaters in videos verified by AFP. In Cebu province alone, 39 people have been confirmed dead, provincial information officer Ainjeliz Orong told AFP, a figure she said did not include fatalities in provincial capital Cebu City, which are tallied separately. At least five deaths have been recorded in other provinces, including an elderly resident who drowned in an upper floor of their home in Leyte province and a man struck by a falling tree in Bohol. In the 24 hours before Tino’s landfall, the area around Cebu City was deluged with 183 millimeters (seven inches) of rain, well over its 131-millimeter monthly average, weather specialist Charmagne Varilla told AFP. “The situation in Cebu is really unprecedented,” provincial governor Pamela Baricuatro told reporters on Tuesday. Scientists warn that storms are becoming more powerful due to human-driven climate change. Warmer oceans allow typhoons to strengthen rapidly, and a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, meaning heavier rainfall. Hundreds still living in tent cities after a 6.9-magnitude quake rocked the island in late September were “forcibly evacuated for their own safety”, Cebu information officer Rhon Ramos told AFP by phone. In total, nearly 400,000 people were pre-emptively moved from the typhoon’s path, civil defense deputy administrator Rafaelito Alejandro said at a Tuesday news briefing. On Tuesday afternoon, the Philippine military confirmed that a helicopter, one of four deployed to assist typhoon relief efforts, had crashed on northern Mindanao island. The Super Huey helicopter went down while en route to the coastal city of Butuan “in support of relief operations” related to the powerful storm, Eastern Mindanao Command said in a statement, adding search and recovery operations were underway. The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, routinely striking disaster-prone areas where millions live in poverty. Read more at: https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2025/11/05/2485026/tino-flooding-kills-over-40-strands-thousands-central-philippines
