Mina leaves 7 dead in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines – Super-typhoon Mina (international name: Nanmadol) killed at least seven people and left flattened bridges and blocked roads in its wake as it slowly moved away from the Philippines, officials said on Sunday.

The toll of dead and missing is likely to rise as officials assess the full impact of the storm, the strongest to hit the country this year, said Emilia Tadeo of the civil defence damage report section.

“After the rains have subsided, that is only when we find the additional casualties and damages, when the local responders submit them to us,” Tadeo told AFP.

Five people were killed by landslides and two others drowned while six people vanished at sea or were swept away by overflowing rivers as Mina brought heavy rains to the northern Philippines, the civil defense office said.

Almost 20,000 people were forced to flee their homes due to the risk of floods and landslides in the mountainous north, the office added.

Eight bridges were destroyed and 20 major roads rendered impassable when Mina hit the country with gusts of up to 230 kilometres (145 miles) per hour, the civil defence office added.

Mina had weakened after clipping the northern edge of the main Philippine island of Luzon but storm alerts remained in force on Sunday as the typhoon slowly moved towards Taiwan.

The storm, which still packs gusts of 170 kilometers per hour, was charted by the government weather station on Sunday moving towards the eastern coast of Taiwan at about seven kilometers per hour.

Mina, named after an ancient site in Micronesia, is forecast to hit Taiwan by Tuesday, the weather station said, warning that the storm could pick up more power as it moved across the sea.

An average of 20 storms and typhoons, many of them deadly, hit the Philippines annually. The last storms, Nock-ten and Muifa, left at least 70 dead when they hit the country in July.