Typhoon Mangkhut: Landslides Kill Dozens in Philippines as Storm Moves West

As Typhoon Mangkhut moved past Hong Kong to mainland China on Sunday, the authorities in the Philippines said that landslides had buried at least two buildings where people were sheltering, sharply raising the death toll there as the extent of the damage was only beginning to become clear.

The storm had weakened overnight but was still a severe typhoon, with gusts of up to 160 miles an hour, the Hong Kong authorities said. Buildings in that city swayed, trees were knocked down, windows shattered and hundreds of flights were canceled.

[Catch up on the rest of our storm coverage.]

Hong Kong rattles and shakes

Hong Kong is used to fierce storms, but when Typhoon Mangkhut struck the city on Sunday, it soon became clear that this one was different. Wind gusts as strong as 160 miles an hour swept through the city, rocking tall buildings and fueling storm swells that threatened the coastline with waves as high as 40 feet.

At midday, the city’s normally teeming streets were devoid of people and cars. The weather authority issued its highest typhoon warning — a signal 10. The government also issued a landslide warning, urging people to stay away from steep hills and retaining walls and asking residents in vulnerable areas to evacuate.

And for the first time ever, Macau, the Asian gambling capital further along the Chinese coast, closed its casinos because of a storm.

Hong Kong residents hunkered down in their apartments, having cleared many grocery-store shelves the day before in preparation.

Others took refuge in shelters. The city’s airport, a central transit point for much of Asia, was virtually shut down, with at least 543 flights canceled and many more delayed, disrupting nearly 100,000 travelers. The outdoor sections of Hong Kong’s vaunted subway system were taken out of service. In Mong Kok, a crane collapsed at a construction site, but no injuries were reported.

Scaffolding collapse at a building site in Kowloon pic.twitter.com/O69ILlXOJr
— 高地柏啲 (香港) (@HighlandPaddyHK) Sept. 16, 2018

Hong Kongers took to Facebook and WhatsApp messaging groups, circulating pictures of the hurried preparations: cars and motorcycles mummified with cling wrap, indoor storefronts encased with spiderweb-like tape. One Instagram user photoshopped Spiderman onto the side of a Hong Kong building, where he’d pitched in by putting tape on a window.

But as the storm bore down in full force, the postings became more ominous. In a city of towering apartment buildings, some reported that they were becoming motion-sick as their homes twisted and swayed. Videos showed glass windows and doors smashing, pedestrians being blown off the ground and residents frantically scooping rain out of their balconies to prevent flooding.

China’s southern coast braces

Storm radar also showed the typhoon battering Guangdong Province, just across the Hong Kong border in mainland China. High-speed rail service was suspended in the province, and workers took precautionary measures at two nuclear plants along the coastline.

Guangdong, China’s most populous province, has extensive experience with typhoons, and makes elaborate preparations for each of them. Evacuations of low-lying areas are mandatory. Fishing vessels are ordered into well-protected anchorages. After 16 workers were killed when their shanty collapsed in a typhoon in 2003, the province pursued a strenuous campaign of demolishing or upgrading substandard housing.

The Pearl River Delta area, which also includes Hong Kong, is one of the world’s most important manufacturing hubs and home to more than 60 million people.

Hong Kong itself is quite resilient to typhoons. Although heavy rain may set off landslides, the former British colony is not especially vulnerable to flooding because it has few low-lying areas.

The sprawling river delta around it, however, is barely above sea level and has struggled with flooding despite years of investment in drainage systems. Climate change has exacerbated the problem. The provincial capital, Guangzhou, has more to lose from rising seas and more severe storms than any other city on the planet, according to a World Bank report.

Boarding up windows, emptying shelves

In Zhanjiang, a coastal city of eight million on the storm’s path near Maoming, workers were boarding up storefronts on Saturday, while residents crowded supermarkets and emptied some of them of water, rice and packaged noodles.

At Yugang Beach, along a bay near the city center, a loudspeaker warned bathers to stay out of the water because of the “influence of the typhoon,” though few seemed concerned given the blue skies and warm temperatures. A woman selling chilled coconuts said she would simply stay home on Sunday.

Beside a rusting ferry ship nearby, groups of young men collected sand into large nylon sacks. One of them, Liang Jiawei, said they intended to use the improvised sandbags to brace the glass windows at the real estate office where they worked.

They recalled that Typhoon Mujigae, the last major typhoon to strike the city, in 2015, killed at least 11 people. “People have been preparing ahead of time because three years ago people were not prepared well,” Mr. Liang said.

Provincial authorities have issued a video on social media showing footage of the previous typhoon and warning people not to take any chances.

Assessing the toll in the Philippines

A top Philippine official, Francis Tolentino, said Sunday morning that at least 25 people had been killed, including a family of four caught in a landslide in their home in the Cordillera Mountains. Among the dead were two rescue workers killed in landslides, local news outlets reported.

The police said the body of a young girl had been found in the Marikina River in the eastern part of metropolitan Manila, though the densely populated capital region seemed to have been spared major damage.

The storm made landfall over Baggao in Cagayan Province and moved west across the country, hitting the opposite coast near Laoag City less than eight hours later.

[Here’s how to help support the recovery efforts.]

Videos posted by the Philippine Red Cross early Sunday show rescue efforts in San Fabian, Pangasinan Province, on the western side of Luzon. Rescuers evacuated families from their homes on boats as the water had risen to neck deep levels in some areas.

PRC staff and volunteers rescued affected families and individuals at neck deep floods brought by typhoon #OmpongPH in Brgy. Sagud-Bahley, San Fabian in Pangasinan. PRC Pangasinan Chapter rescued an 8-month old baby and 43 individuals. pic.twitter.com/OMYQ6Gd0lB
— Philippine Red Cross (@philredcross) Sept. 15, 2018

The authorities said more than 105,000 people had taken shelter in evacuation centers as the typhoon was nearing. Much of the planning for Mangkhut was informed by lessons learned from Typhoon Haiyan, the devastating 2013 storm that killed 6,000 people and left more than four million homeless.

“Because of other typhoons, people have internalized the fact that they have to go to evacuation centers, so the process was quite smooth this time,” Mr. Tolentino said. “Some people wanted to stay with their farm animals, but if you have to choose between your life or your animals, you should choose your life.”

Driving along the coast, amid flying debris

The New York Times reporters Hannah Beech and Kimberly dela Cruz traveled along Luzon’s western and northern coasts on Saturday. Foliage, trees and rolling coconuts were strewn across the roads, which were deserted except for volunteer crews removing debris to make them passable and the occasional emergency vehicle.

Typhoon Mangkhut: trees down on road pic.twitter.com/lKPcms2dkG
— Hannah Beech (@hkbeech) Sept. 14, 2018

In one community after another, they reported seeing downed trees and badly damaged buildings. Signs, tin roofs and gates that had been torn free flew about.

In Claveria, a corn- and rice-growing area on the northern coast, the Antonio family had fled their home around 1 a.m. for sturdier shelter. Marck James Antonio, 24, stayed behind and was struck and gashed in the right temple by flying debris. But he was conscious and still moving around.

“This was the strongest and the worst storm that I’ve ever experienced in my life,” said his mother, Teresita Antonio, 54. “I was crying before because I don’t know how I will be able to afford to fix my house.”

If you ever wondered what whistling wind sounds like. pic.twitter.com/ZLYvL90NJ7
— Hannah Beech (@hkbeech) Sept. 14, 2018

“It was shaking like an earthquake,” said another resident, Robert Tumaneng, 55, a fish farmer. From a road above, the area where the fish ponds once were looked like a giant lake, with the tips of submerged palm trees and thatched roofs sticking out.

Further east, in Sanchez Mira, more than 270 people had sought shelter at a community hall.

“Some people didn’t want to evacuate their homes but I forced them,” said Rewin Valenzuela, 48, a local leader. “We evacuated everyone to prevent loss of life.”

The winds made it difficult to stand outdoors but some residents were returning home, carrying mattresses and plastic buckets with food and other provisions. The roofs had been torn off other houses and a few that were built on stilts listed dangerously.

another in a series of smashed gas stations #TyphoonManghkut #TyphoonOMPONGph pic.twitter.com/IzO9Lo9fYo
— Hannah Beech (@hkbeech) Sept. 15, 2018

Flooding but limited damage in Manila

The 12 million residents of the metropolitan Manila area, one of the world’s most densely populated cities, appeared to have been spared major destruction as the center of the storm passed hundreds of miles to the north.

The megacity was hit by heavy rain and strong winds, with trees uprooted and flooding in some areas. Among the inundated roads was Roxas Boulevard, a major artery that runs along Manila Bay and often floods during storms.

More than 1,600 families were evacuated after the Marikina River, which runs through part of the city, began rising quickly because of runoff from nearby mountains. The police said the body of a child, about 10 years old, was found floating in the river under a bridge in Pasig, one of several cities that make up Metro Manila.

By Sunday, the river had subsided and the families were allowed to return.

The Manila area sits near sea level on the shore of Manila Bay, making it vulnerable to the typhoons that sweep in from the Pacific.

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