(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) –After turning deadly in the northern Philippines, Mangkhut unleashed damaging winds and flooding rain across southern China.
At least 69 people have died in the Philippines and China as a result of the storm, according to the Associated Press (AP). A majority of these deaths have occurred in the Philippines.
Mangkhut, known as Ompong in the Philippines, made landfall on the northern tip of Luzon on Friday night, local time.
The storm reached peak intensity on Wednesday evening when Mangkhut became the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific.
Debris was hurtled through the air as the powerful typhoon crossed the northern Philippines, with roofs being ripped off of homes, businesses and many trees and power lines downed.
“Almost all of the buildings here have been damaged, the roofs were blown away,” Rogelio Sending, a government official in Tuguegarao, the capital of Cagayan, told Reuters. “There has been no electricity supply … communications were also down.”
