Typhoon Man-yi worsens crisis from back-to-back storms that devastated northern Philippines

Typhoon Man-yi devastates northern Philippines, leaving villages missing, homes destroyed, power outages, and urgent need for aid.

“Typhoon Man-yi left at least three villagers missing, destroyed houses, knocked out power in entire towns and displaced large numbers of villagers before blowing away from the northern Philippines, worsening the crisis wreaked by five previous storms,” officials said on Monday (November 18, 2024).

Man-yi was one of the strongest of the six major storms to hit the northern Philippines in less than a month and had sustained winds of up to 195 km (125 miles) per hour when it slammed into the eastern island province of Catanduanes on Saturday night (November 17, 2024.)

Tropical storm battering Philippines leaves 23 people dead in flooding, landslips

Disaster-response officials said they were checking if the deaths of two villagers were directly related to Man-yi's onslaught in eastern Camarines Norte province. They said a search was under way for a couple and their child after their shanty was swept away in rampaging rivers in northern Nueva Ecija province.

“More than a million people were affected by the typhoon and two previous storms, including nearly 7,00,000 who fled their homes and moved to emergency shelters or relatives’ homes,” according to the Official of Civil Defence.

“Nearly 8,000 houses were damaged or destroyed and more than 100 cities and towns were hit by power outages due to toppled electric posts,” it said.

“In the worst-hit province of Camarines, officials pleaded for additional help after fierce winds and rain damaged more houses and cut off electricity and water supplies in the entire province, along with cellphone connections in many areas,” provincial information officer Camille Gianan said.