At least one person was killed as a powerful typhoon skirted the Philippines Monday, dumping heavy rain that flooded dozens of villages and forced tens of thousands to leave their homes. But strong winds and heavy rain reached the central region of the Eastern Visayas, where about 66 villages were flooded, the regional civil defence office said. Just imagine what would happen then with its strong winds and heavy rains,” civil defence officer Malou Dela Calzada told AFP. Many of the storms are deadly, and they typically wipe out harvests, homes and infrastructure, keeping millions of people perennially poor. The country’s deadliest typhoon on record was Super Typhoon Haiyan, which left more than 7,300 people dead or missing in 2013.

Source: The Guardian April 19, 2021 14:37 UTC