Typhoon Kalmaegi kills two people as it batters Philippines

Residents have sought refuge on rooftops, and cars have floated through flooded streets as Typhoon Kalmaegi has battered the central Philippines, killing at least two people.

Hundreds of thousands have been displaced by the powerful storm, which made landfall shortly before midnight on Monday.

The 20th tropical cyclone to batter the Philippines this year was moving westwards at 25km/h (16mph) on Tuesday and was forecast to start shifting away from western areas of the archipelago nation into the South China Sea by early on Wednesday, forecasters said.

“People marooned on rooftops are asking to be rescued,” Rhon Ramos, an information officer on the island of Cebu, told the AFP news agency by telephone, adding that even some evacuation centres had been flooded.

Hundreds still living in tent cities after a magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck the island in late September were “forcibly evacuated for their own safety”, he said.

Rafaelito Alejandro, deputy administrator at the Office of Civil Defence, told local radio that 387,000 people had been moved out of the typhoon’s path.

A man was killed by a falling tree in Bohol province, and disaster official Danilo Atienza said an elderly person had drowned in Leyte province.

State weather service specialist Charmagne Varilla said at least “three to five more” storms could be expected before the end of December.

Scientists have warned that storms are becoming more frequent and more powerful due to human‑driven climate change.

Varilla said higher numbers of cyclones typically accompany La Nina, a naturally occurring climate pattern that cools surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean.