Powerful Typhoon Utor update.
Posted by hanna on 8/12/2013, 9:04 am
Typhoon Utor pummels northern Philippines leaves trail of death and destruction  
Reuters

First posted: Monday, August 12, 2013 07:30 AM EDT | Updated: Monday, August 12, 2013 07:35 AM EDT



boy sifts through floating garbage as he collects recyclable items to sell while strong waves crash along the shores of Manila Bay, near a slum area in Manila August 12, 2013. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

MANILA - The most powerful typhoon to hit the Philippines this year triggered landslides and floods on Monday, disrupting power and communication links to leave one man dead and 13 fishermen missing, weather and disaster officials said.

Typhoon Utor, packing winds of 150 km per hour near its centre and gusts of up to 185 kmph, regained strength as it moved out of northern Luzon island towards the South China Sea, headed west-northwest at 19 kmph, the officials said.

The coastal town of Casiguran in Aurora province, 343 km northeast of the capital Manila, suffered the worst damage, after the typhoon set off landslides that blocked its only access road.

"About 90 percent of our agriculture was destroyed or damaged, particularly rice and corn crops and coconut plantations," Aurora governor Gerardo Noveras told ANC television, adding that the full extent of damage was still unknown.

"We have restored power and communications in some towns, and we're ready to deliver relief goods to affected families."

But Casiguran and another coastal town were still isolated, he said.

Television showed images of devastation ranging from uprooted trees and fallen lamp-posts to tangled power lines and flattened houses. Most mountain roads were blocked by boulders and loosened soil.

By Tuesday, the typhoon, the twelfth tropical cyclone this year, will have crossed Philippine borders and head for southern China, officials said.

The national disaster agency said a man clearing a clogged drain was killed when a landslide buried him in mountainous Benguet province, while 13 fishermen in the coastal provinces of Pangasinan and Camarines Sur were reported missing.

Police are also checking reports of three missing fishing boats, with 25 men aboard. But 9 fishermen earlier reported missing on the central island of Catanduanes have all been accounted for, disaster officials said.

Schools in the capital and most parts of Luzon were closed while two local carriers suspended 18 domestic flights. Sea travel halted and commuter buses were stalled.

About 20 typhoons hit the Philippines every year, often bringing death and destruction. A state of national calamity was declared last December after typhoon Bopha killed more than 700 people in the resource-rich south, but most storms make landfall further north.

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/08/12/typhoon-utor-pummels-philippines

Powerful Typhoon Utor leaves at least 1 dead, 20 missing in Philippines

By Jethro Mullen, CNN
August 12, 2013 -- Updated 1028 GMT (1828 HKT)


(CNN) -- The world's strongest storm of the year so far plowed across the northern Philippines on Monday, killing at least one person and leaving 20 fishermen missing.

Packing winds as strong as 200 kilometers per hour (124 mph), Typhoon Utor made landfall early Monday on the east coast of the Philippine island of Luzon, damaging hundreds of houses.

"It's the strongest typhoon we've had so far on the planet this year," said CNN International meteorologist Samantha Mohr. "So that gives you some idea of the magnitude of this system."

Utor, known in the Philippines as Labuyo, churned west-northwest over Luzon, dumping heavy rain on the island's hilly terrain and bringing the risk of landslides. It weakened as it moved over land, and by Monday afternoon, it had begun to head out into the South China Sea.

Aid groups in the Philippines, which had been preparing for the storm's arrival for several days, said they were only just beginning to assess the situation on the ground in the hardest-hit areas.

"There's a high risk that part of the population may get isolated because of landslides and difficulty moving around," said Anna Lindenfors, country director for Save the Children in the Philippines.

The country's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council reported one death in the province of Benguet on Monday afternoon.

Twenty fishermen who had headed out to sea before the storm's arrival remained unaccounted for, the agency said. But dozens of others who had initially been reported missing had returned home safely, it said.

The agency reported damage to 673 houses in the province of Aurora, where the storm made landfall.

The typhoon destroyed nearly 80% of the infrastructure in Casiguran, a town that lay in Utor's path across the province, CNN affiliate ABS-CBN reported.

The storm tore apart rickety houses and ripped the roof off a local hospital, the local broadcaster said, showing images of flattened homes buried under fallen trees.

Situated near an area of the Pacific Ocean where typhoons form, the Philippines regularly suffers severe storm damage.

An average of 20 typhoons hit the Southeast Asian country every year, and two or three of those cause serious damage, according to Plan International, an aid and development organization.

Utor is expected to pick up more strength over the warm waters of the South China Sea over the next day or so before making landfall on the southern coast of China on Wednesday.

CNN's Anjali Tsui contributed to this report.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/12/world/asia/typhoon-utor/?hpt=hp_t3




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Powerful Typhoon Utor update. - hanna, 8/12/2013, 9:04 am
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