Another typhoon nears Philippines
Another typhoon nears Philippines
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A typhoon blew out of the northern Philippines on Sunday after leaving 13 people dead, but officials remained on alert after another storm was spotted in the Pacific.
Typhoon Nari also flooded farmlands and destroyed thousands of houses in provinces north of Manila before blowing away into the South China Sea. Chinese authorities said about 27,000 fishing boats had been called back to port on Sunday, and heavy rains associated with the storm were expected to hit parts of southern China today.
In San Miguel town in the Philippines’ Bulacan province, the sun shone on villages where floodwaters that reached up to roof-level had receded, allowing residents to return from emergency shelters to clean up, wash muddied belongings and repair damaged houses.
Eduardo del Rosario, who heads the government’s disaster-response agency, said police officers, military personnel and local officials would remain on alert after forecasters spotted another typhoon, named Wipha, more than 807 miles east of the northern Philippines.
Government forecasters said the new typhoon would likely spare the country if it does not veer away from its current course.
Nari was the 19th of more than 20 storms expected to batter the Philippines this year.
India: Few deaths in massive cyclone
BEHRAMPUR, India — Mass evacuations spared India the widespread deaths many had feared from a powerful cyclone that roared ashore over the weekend, officials said Sunday, as the country sorted through the wreckage of flooded towns, tangled power lines and tens of thousands of destroyed thatch homes.
Cyclone Phailin, the strongest storm to hit India in more than a decade, destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of crops, but more than 20 hours after it made landfall in Orissa state on the country’s east coast, authorities said they knew of only 17 fatalities.
The final death toll is expected to climb further as officials reach areas of the cyclone-battered coast that remain isolated by downed communication links and blocked roads, but the evacuation of nearly 1 million people appeared to have saved many lives.
“Damage to property is extensive,” said Amitabh Thakur, the top police officer in the Orissa district worst-hit by the cyclone. “But few lives have been lost,” he said, crediting the mass evacuations.
On the highway to the seaside city of Gopalpur, where the storm made landfall early Saturday night, two tractor-trailers with shattered windshields were lying on their sides, while a hotel nearby was in tatters.
Dozens dead after Mali boat sinking
KOUBI, Mali — Mahmoudou Ibrahim combed the waters frantically for his family after they and hundreds of other passengers were catapulted into the Niger River when their boat capsized.
Amid the cries for help in the darkness of night, he listened in vain for the sound of their voices.
On Sunday morning, crews pulled the bloated bodies of three of his children from the river: 1-year-old Ahmadou, 3-year-old Salamata and 4-year-old Fatouma. There is still no sign of his wife, Zeinabou, or their 5-year-old twin girls, who were last seen curled up on mats aboard the ship.
“The pain that I feel today is beyond excruciating,” he said from the village cemetery where he buried the remains of his three children Sunday.
By nightfall, a total of 43 corpses had been recovered from the river since the accident Friday, said Hamadoun Cisse, a local official in charge of tracking casualty figures.