Workers pull a fallen electric pylon damaged at the height of Typhoon Phanfone in Salcedo town in Eastern Samar province on December 26, 2019.A strong typhoon that barrelled through the central Philippines left at least 20 people dead and forced thousands to flee their homes, devastating Christmas celebrations in the predominantly Catholic country.
“You can’t see anybody because there was a total blackout, you can’t hear anything. The town looked like a ghost town,” Cindy Ferrer of the regional Office of the Civil Defence said by phone.The storm weakened slightly on Thursday as it blew into the South China Sea with sustained winds of 120 kilometres per hour and gusts of 150 kph after lashing island after island with fierce winds and pounding rain on Christmas Day, the weather agency said.
A father, his three children and another relative were among those missing in hard-hit Iloilo province after a swollen river inundated their shanty, officials said. Provincial officials, army troops, police and volunteers spent Christmas away from home to tend to thousands of displaced residents in town gymnasiums and schools turned into emergency shelters. Many more people spent Christmas Eve, traditionally a time for family reunions, in bus terminals.
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