Super-typhoon 'Angela' kills 66 in Philippines

Super-typhoon 'Angela' kills 66 in Philippines

MANILA (Reuter): The most powerful typhoon to hit the
Philippines for years howled across the country yesterday,
killing 66 people, sending more than 200,000 fleeing their homes
and leaving millions without power.

"This is the worst beating we have ever had," Catanduanes
governor Severo Alcantara told Reuters before communications with
the island province were severed, apart from ham radio links.

Catanduanes, 350 km (220 miles) east of the capital Manila,
was the first area to feel the fury of Angela, described by
weathermen as a "super-typhoon" because of its size and power.

Up to 800 km (500 miles) in diameter and with winds initially
gusting up to 250 kph (155 mph), Angela then scythed across the
southern part of Luzon, the most prosperous and heavily populated
island in this nation of 65 million people.

Its outer fringes began to hit Catanduanes on Thursday night
and its center, or eye, passed just south of Manila by 11.30 a.m.
(0330 GMT) yesterday, although its huge size meant its impact
lingered for several hours.

Most of the deaths were drownings, although several people
were killed by objects sent flying by the gales, disaster
officials said.

The dead included a three-day-old baby, officials said.

Casualties

At least 10 people died when volcanic debris loosened by rain
thundered down the flanks of Mount Mayon near Legazpi, the main
city of the worst-hit Bicol region.

Thousands of traditional Filipino wood and palm-thatch homes
were destroyed.

Initial estimates put damage to property and crops such as
rice and coconuts at more than 1.2 billion pesos ($46.2 million).

"We have no food. We may die of starvation here," Raul Lee,
governor of Sorsogon province in the Bicol region, told a Manila
radio station.

"All of our crops have been destroyed. We are asking the
government in Manila to please send us 200 sacks of rice. We have
never seen a typhoon like this," he said.

President Fidel Ramos, taking personal charge of relief
efforts in Manila, said: "Saving lives and reducing damage is the
main event at this particular time."

More than 200,000 people, including 20,000 in the capital,
fled for their lives and crowded into evacuation centers in
schools, churches and, in at least one case, a shopping mall.

The normally congested capital turned into a ghost town as its
8.5 million people cowered indoors. In the deserted business
district of Makati the wind set up an eerie shrieking noise as it
pounded high rise buildings.

Angela is the worst cyclone to strike the Philippines,
battered by an average 20 storms a year, since typhoon Nina
killed 1,000 people in 1987.

It struck less than a week after Typhoon Zack killed more than
160 people in the central Philippines and devastated rice and
sugar crops.

Angela inflicted severe damage on Luzon's electricity supply,
knocking down power lines and leaving millions of people in
darkness or dependent on emergency generators.

Manila airport was closed for most of the day but reopened
around 7.30 p.m. (1130 GMT).

Weather forecasters said that by the time Angela had left the
Philippines, it had weakened slightly to a top wind speed of 170
kph (106 mph) and was heading across the South China Sea, roughly
in the direction of Vietnam.