At least 26 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of others had fled their homes in the central Philippines on Tuesday, the authorities said, after Typhoon Kalmaegi brought destructive winds and devastating flooding to a region still reeling from a deadly earthquake.
Most of the victims had drowned, while some died from fallen trees, electrocution and landslide, said Junie Castillo, a spokesman for the national Office of Civil Defense. More than 380,000 people had been displaced, many evacuating before Kalmaegi made landfall, he said.
The extent of casualties and damage caused by the storm, known locally as Tino, remained unclear on Tuesday evening.
Videos posted on social media and verified by The New York Times showed streets on the island of Cebu overwhelmed by floodwaters and people trying to get to dry ground. One clip captured a man in a red safety vest heading down a street on paddle board to check on others.
“We were marooned inside our house and rushed to the second floor,” Monique Haeyn Rosario, 28, who lives with her toddler, her parents and other family near the Butuanon River in Cebu City, said in a telephone interview. She said the river’s level started rising quickly around 5 a.m. Tuesday. Floodwaters outside her house were as high as 10 feet, she estimated.
“The authorities have reached us and are rushing aid, but I am appealing for food, and, most importantly, water and dry clothes and medicines” she said.
The national government said it had distributed aid, including food, worth 6 million Philippine pesos, about $100,000. The military and Coast Guard were helping to clear debris and evacuate residents from flooded areas.
One Air Force helicopter en route to assess the damage crashed in southern Agusan del Sur Province on Tuesday afternoon, the military said. It was not immediately clear if the five people on board had survived.
In Cebu Province, officials said that more than 100,000 people were sheltering in evacuation centers.
Mr. Castillo said that 22 deaths were recorded in Cebu. Fatalities were also reported in Bohol Provice, the Negros Island Region as well as the Eastern and Western Visayas.
Kalmaegi hit the Philippines just over a month after a magnitude 6.9 earthquake killed dozens in northern Cebu. On Tuesday morning, the storm had maximum sustained winds of about 95 miles per hour and gusts of up to 125 m.p.h, according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.
The storm was moving west toward Panay and Palawan islands, and is then forecast to move beyond the Philippines and toward Vietnam.
“Search-and-rescue operations are still ongoing,” Mr. Castillo said.
Even as Kalmaegi weakened over land, the authorities said another weather system was forming east of Mindanao.
Jiawei Wang is a video journalist for The New York Times based in Seoul.
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