BULAN, Sorsogon—Tattered lanterns, festive lights and tin roofs littered towns in the central Philippines on Tuesday after Typhoon “Nona” (international name Melor) swept through, killing at least four people and leaving millions without power ahead of Christmas.
Distraught survivors surveyed their damaged homes on the eve of the traditional nine-day Christmas vigil.
“It will be a very sad Christmas and a dark one because we have no power. But the important thing is everyone around me is still moving,” 54-year-old rice farmer Noemi Pesigan said.
Nona blew out the windows of Pesigan’s two-story brick and wood house in Bulan, a small farming town, and she survived the storm by sheltering in a nearby shop.
The typhoon tore in off the Pacific Ocean on Monday afternoon and hit farming and fishing communities in the eastern Philippines with winds of up to 185 kilometers an hour.
Three people were killed in floods in Northern Samar province, which faces the Pacific, municipal disaster officer Jonathan Baldo told radio dzMM.
Flying debris also killed a man in Northern Samar, national disaster agency spokeswoman Mina Marasigan said, without being able to confirm the other three fatalities.
Nona weakened slightly as it cut across the central islands of the archipelago, but on Tuesday afternoon its wind gusts were still reaching 170 kilometers an hour as it passed over the island of Mindoro.
It was due to move out into the South China Sea on Tuesday afternoon.
Authorities had yet to make contact with some of the badly hit areas and it was unclear if or by how much the death toll would climb.
In Bicol, a vast region in the east often hit by typhoons, authorities credited the early evacuation of 720,000 people for what they believed would be a low death toll.
In Albay province, residents carrying bags of clothes and water jugs went onto army trucks in Legazpi City as authorities sounded an evacuation alarm.
Huge waves crashed into the city’s deserted boulevard as palm trees swayed from the wind.
“The whole province is now a ghost town. We shut all establishments. No school, no work,” Albay Gov. Joey Salceda told ABS-CBN television. “We have zero floods, zero deaths, zero casualties.”
But he said the entire province of 1.2 million people was without power.
“What we are asking for is the early restoration of electricity,” he said.
Residents of neighboring Sorsogon, which takes in Bulan town, were also without power on Tuesday, and authorities could give no guarantees if electricity would be restored by Christmas.
“Our target is to restore power by Christmas, but it will still depend on many factors,” Mina Marasigan, spokeswoman of the national disaster management agency, said.
She said the timing would depend on how badly damaged towns were, and how much cleaning up of roads was required before teams could go in to put up new power poles and lines.
President Benigno Aquino III ordered the speedy restoration of power and communications.
The Palace said the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council would also focus on clearing the debris from roads in typhoon-affected areas.
“The Mindoro situation is being closely monitored due to continuous rains,” said Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin. “The NDRRMC will coordinate with local DRRMCs on when those in evacuation centers may be allowed to return to their homes.”
The weather bureau said Nona maintained its strength as it made its fifth landfall over Pinamalayan, Oriental Mindoro at about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.
In Oriental Mindoro, most low-lying villages were under waist-deep water, forcing trapped residents in their homes to call for emergency rescue due to rising rain waters.
Weather forecaster Robert Badrina said that as of 1 p.m. Tuesday, the eye of the typhoon was 25 kilometers south of Calapan City. It was expected to exit the landmass Tuesday evening.
Public storm warning signal No. 3 was raised over the Calamian group of Islands and the provinces of Oriental Mindoro and Occidental Mindoro, including Lubang Island.
Storm signal No. 2 was raised over Marinduque, Romblon and Batangas, and signal No. 1 was declared over Metro Manila, as well as in the provinces of Bataan, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Quezon, Burias Island and Northern Palawan, including Cuyo Island in Luzon; and Aklan and Antique and in the Visayas.
Catarman Airport sustained structural damage from the typhoon, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said. Damaged in the storm were the fire station; the terminal building, whose roof was blown away by strong winds; and the flight services station.
The state weather bureau said it has spotted a new weather disturbance outside the Philippine Area of Responsibility at 1,800 kilometers east-southeast of Mindanao. The low pressure area is expected to enter the PAR late this week, with a high chance of intensifying into a tropical cyclone.
Once it enters the country, it will be locally named “Onyok.”
The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 typhoons a year, many of them deadly, with the strongest often happening towards the end of the year.
Last year, 53 people died in floods and landslides after Typhoon Ofel hit another part of the eastern Philippines five days after Christmas, catching many people on holidays off guard.
The last deadly storm to hit the country this year, Lando, killed 54 people and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes after it pummeled rice-growing northern provinces in October.
In November 2013, one of the strongest typhoons on record, Yolanda, flattened entire communities in the central region with tsunami-like waves, leaving 7,350 people dead or missing.
