Philippines Christmas Day Typhoon Kills 16, 4,000 Stranded At Ports

Authorities have confirmed that at least 16 people are dead as the result of a Christmas Day typhoon that struck the central Philippines. One of those killed was a police officer who was electrocuted by a toppled electricity pylon while on patrol. Nearly 4,000 passengers are stranded in various ports in the country.

Describing the storm, named Ursula (or Phanphone), Cindy Ferrer, an information officer at the Western Visayas region’s disaster office, said, “It’s like the younger sibling of Haiyan. It’s less destructive, but it followed a similar path.” Haiyan was a 2013 super typhoon that took a similar track and became the country’s deadliest storm on record. Haiyan left more than 7,300 people dead or missing.

Ursula packed winds of 195 kilometers (120 miles) per hour and targeted remote villages and some popular tourist areas of the central Philippines like Boracay and Coron. Vacationers may have to extend their vacations because the main airport that services Boracay in the city of Kalibo sustained severe damage.

A Korean tourist, Jung Byung Joon, posted images on Instagram and said, “Roads remain blocked, but some efforts have been made to clear away the damage. It’s pretty bad. Everything within 100 meters of the airport looks broken. There are a lot of frustrated people at the airport as flights have been cancelled. Taxis are still running but it’s windy and still raining so no one wants to leave the airport, including me.”

Internet and mobile phone networks are still cut off in some areas so a full assessment of the damage could not be made as of Thursday morning. What is known is that tens of thousands of people had to evacuate their homes ruining Christmas celebrations in the largely Catholic country. The shut-down of boats, ferries and air travel prevented many family reunions that are typical of Filipino Christmas celebrations.

The material and monetary losses are not likely to be large compared to a Category 3 hurricane (111 -129 mph sustained winds) striking a major east coast city in the United States because most of the people living in the path of Ursula don’t have that much to lose. When a deadly storm hits the typhoon prone archipelago, flimsy homes and infrastructures are lost adding to the woes of people already financially stressed.

As of Thursday afternoon, Ursula is in the West Philippine Sea as a weakened storm and headed toward Vietnam where it is likely to weaken further. To Filipinos caught in the storm and about 4,000 stranded travelers, Ursula is just another reminder that Mother Nature does not care about holidays.