Typhoon Kalmaegi leaves Philippines largely unscathed

Typhoon Kalmaegi swept out of the Philippines on Monday after causing chest-deep floods in some rural areas but leaving the storm-prone country largely unscathed, authorities said.

The storm, with winds of 160 km an hour, struck the northeast of the main Philippine island of Luzon on Sunday evening, then moved west across land before heading into the South China Sea on Monday.

Six people were killed after a passenger ferry sank in the central Philippines on Saturday evening amid rough weather as the storm approached, a navy spokeswoman said.

But officials said this was not directly linked to the typhoon, and said there had been no reports of other casualties related to the weather.

"We have no casualties ... because we gave out advance warnings, because our local chief executives acted early, because we had pre-emptive evacuation and took our countrymen out of danger," Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas said.

He also described the storm as only "moderate", and it did not hit heavily populated areas hard. Floods occurred mostly in the mountainous and farming regions of northern Luzon.

About 7,800 people sought shelter from the typhoon in government evacuation centers, but Roxas said many of them were returning home soon after the storm passed.

The Philippines is hit by about 20 storms or typhoons each year, many of them deadly.

Super Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest storm ever to make landfall, left more than 7,300 people dead or missing as it destroyed entire towns in the central Philippines in November.

In July, Typhoon Rammasun killed 98 people and left five others missing, mostly in provinces near the capital, Manila.

(China Daily 09/16/2014 page11)