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Bloomberg
Super Typhoon Mangkhut battered the Philippines with gales and torrential rains, leaving at least three people dead and thousands homeless, triggering landslides and damaging an airport before heading toward China.
The most powerful storm of the year ripped into Cagayan province in the northern Philippines with winds of up to 269 kilometres (167 miles) per hour. By US standards it was a Category 5 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, according to the US Navy and Air Force’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Hawaii. The storm is forecast to cross the South China Sea and strike Guangdong by Sunday.
If the typhoon stays on its course, Mangkhut could cause about $120 billion in damage in China and Hong Kong, said Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler with Enki Research in
Savannah, Georgia. In the Philippines, economic losses could reach 6.6 percent of gross domestic product, or more than $20 billion, he said.
Philippine authorities are finding it difficult to reach areas hardest hit by the storm. At least five roads and bridges in the north of the country are impassable after landslides, while gales shattered windows and collapsed the ceiling of an airport in Cagayan province. Winds and rain are preventing government agencies from assessing the full extent of damage, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a televised news conference.
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi postponed his September 16-18 visit to the Philippines in the aftermath of the storm. The Southeast Asian nation’s foreign affairs department said it is now focused on coordinating offers of international humanitarian assistance.
Mangkhut, named after a Thai fruit, weakened after hitting land, with maximum sustained winds of 213 kilometres per hour, according to the JTWC.