The Philippines’ disaster agency has confirmed that at least 114 people have been killed by Typhoon Kalmaegi, with another 127 people still missing, as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr declared a state of emergency and warned of another incoming super typhoon.
The worst may also be yet to come with Kalmaegi, as meteorologists with the United States military’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) reported that the storm had regained strength as it now bears down on Vietnam’s central regions.
In its most recent alert on Thursday morning at 10am local time in Vietnam (03:00 GMT), the JTWC said that Kalmaegi is “barrelling towards the Vietnamese coast and reaching peak intensity”.
Upgrading the storm to Category 4, the JTWC said “Typhoon Kalmaegi will continue rapid progress … and slam into the Vietnamese coast” just north of the city of Quy Nhon in central Vietnam.
The typhoon, named Tino locally, devastated large areas of the Philippines as it made landfall in eight areas in the centre of the country on Tuesday, in what is officially the deadliest natural disaster to hit the Southeast Asian archipelago nation this year.
Scenes of widespread destruction have begun to emerge from the hardest-hit Philippine province of Cebu, from where the storm receded on Wednesday.
Many of the more than 200,000 people who were evacuated have returned to find their homes destroyed, vehicles overturned, and streets blocked with piles of debris.
The arduous cleanup effort has begun, with communities scraping mud from their homes and removing large pieces of debris from the streets.
“The challenge now is debris clearing,” Raffy Alejandro, a senior civil defence official, told local radio news outlet DZBB.
“These need to be cleared immediately, not only to account for the missing who may be among the debris or may have reached safe areas but also to allow relief operations to move forward,” he said.
Talking to news media following his meeting with disaster-response officials, President Marcos described the storm as a “national calamity”. He said declaring a national emergency will give the government “quicker access to some of the emergency funds” and prevent food hoarding and overpricing.
Marcos also warned of another storm approaching the northern Philippines – known internationally as Typhoon Fung-wong, and locally as Uwan – which he said “could be even stronger” than Kalmaegi.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said it expects Fung-wong to develop into a super typhoon by Saturday.
PAGASA said it could enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility late on Friday or early Saturday, and has “an increasing chance of landfall” in northern or central Luzon, the island on which the country’s capital Manila is located.
On Al Jazeera.
Typhoon Kalmaegi #TinoPH has moved away from the Philippines but left a trail of death and destruction. At least 85 people are confirmed dead but that toll is likely to rise. Search and rescue workers are clearing mud and debris to find those who remain missing…… pic.twitter.com/gdX7enp49l
— Barnaby Lo 吳宗鴻 (@barnabychuck) November 5, 2025
As Kalmaegi moved over the South China Sea in advance of its landfall in Vietnam on Thursday, authorities there have begun mobilising thousands of Vietnamese soldiers to assist in the evacuation of some 350,000 people in the central highland province of Gia Lai.
Authorities have warned that heavy rains and damaging winds will impact several central provinces, potentially causing flooding in low-lying areas and disrupting agricultural activity, including in the key coffee harvest, which is currently under way.
Vietnam’s aviation authorities also warned that operations at eight airports, including the international airport in the city of Da Nang, are likely to be affected.
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