MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Typhoon Kalmaegi has left at least 66 people dead with 26 others missing in the central Philippines, many in widespread flooding that trapped people on their roofs and swept away cars in a hard-hit province still recovering from a deadly earthquake, officials said Wednesday.

Among the dead were six people who were killed when a Philippine air force helicopter crashed in the southern province of Agusan del Sur on Tuesday. The crew was on its way to provide humanitarian help to provinces battered by Kalmaegi, the military said. It did not give the cause of the crash.

Kalmaegi blew away from western Palawan province into the South China Sea before noon Wednesday with sustained winds of up to 130 kph (81 mph) and gusts of up to 180 kph (112 mph), according to forecasters.

Central province hit hardest by the storm

Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV, deputy administrator of the Office of Civil Defense, and provincial officials said most of the deaths were reported in the central province of Cebu, which was pummeled by Kalmaegi on Tuesday, setting off flash floods and causing a river and other waterways to swell.

The resulting flooding engulfed residential communities, forcing startled residents to climb on their roofs, where they desperately pleaded to be rescued as the floodwaters rose, officials said.

The Philippine Red Cross received many calls from people needing rescue in Cebu from their roofs, its secretary-general Gwendolyn Pang said Tuesday.

At least 49 drowned in floods and others died as a result of landslides and falling debris in Cebu, where 13 of the 26 missing were reported, the Office of Civil Defense said on Wednesday.

“We did everything we can for the typhoon but, you know, there are really some unexpected things like flash floods,” Cebu Gov. Pamela Baricuatro told The Associated Press by telephone.

Caloy Ramirez, a volunteer rescuer, said the massive flooding set off by the typhoon turned an upscale riverside residential community in Cebu city on Tuesday into an unrecognizable scene of tumbled SUVs and houses in disarray.

Residents said floodwater engulfing the first floors of their houses in just a few minutes, sending them scrambling to upper floors or roofs in panic.

“We always expect the worst and what I saw yesterday was the worst,” Ramirez told The AP. She described how the faces of desperate residents would light up when they realized they were being rescued.

Concerns grow over flood control projects

The problems may have been made worse by years of quarrying that caused clogging of nearby rivers, which overflowed, and substandard flood control projects in Cebu province, Baricuatro said.

A corruption scandal involving substandard or non-existent flood control projects across the Philippines has sparked public outrage and street protests in recent months.

Cebu, a bustling province of more than 2.4 million people, declared a state of calamity to allow authorities to disburse emergency funds more rapidly.

Cebu was still recovering from a 6.9 magnitude earthquake on Sept. 30 that left at least 79 people dead and displaced thousands when houses collapsed or were severely damaged.

Thousands of northern Cebu residents who were displaced by the earthquake were moved to sturdier evacuation shelters from flimsy tents before the typhoon struck, Baricuatro said. Northern towns devastated by the earthquake were mostly not hit by floods generated by Kalmaegi, she added.

Kalmaegi heads toward Vietnam and Thailand

Before Kalmaegi’s landfall, officials said more than 387,000 people had evacuated to safer ground in eastern and central Philippine provinces.

Ferries and fishing boats were prohibited from venturing out to increasingly rough seas, stranding more than 3,500 passengers and cargo truck drivers in nearly 100 seaports, the coast guard said. At least 186 domestic flights were canceled.

The Philippines is battered by about 20 typhoons and storms each year. The country also is often hit by earthquakes and has more than a dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.

Central Vietnam, still reeling from days of record rain that triggered flash floods and landslides, was bracing for more pounding rain as Kalmaegi nears.

Fishing boats returned to shore while local authorities readied evacuation plans, secured shelters and stockpiled food, state media reported.

Forecasters estimate the storm will reach Vietnam’s coast Friday morning.

Meanwhile, Thailand’s weather agency issued an advisory for the northern, eastern and central parts of the country, warning that Kalmaegi would bring heavy rain Friday and into the weekend that could cause flash floods, landslides and river overflows.

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MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Typhoon Kalmaegi has left at least 26 people dead in the Philippines, mostly in flooding set off by the storm, which barreled across the central part of the country on Tuesday, disaster response officials said. Floodwaters trapped scores of people on their roofs and submerged cars.

A Philippine air force helicopter with five personnel on board crashed in a separate incident in southern Agusan del Sur province while flying to help provide humanitarian assistance to provinces battered by Kalmaegi.

The Super Huey chopper crashed near Loreto town and efforts were underway to locate the air force personnel aboard, the military’s Eastern Mindanao Command said in a statement.

Military officials didn’t immediately provide other details about the crash, including the condition of the five air force personnel aboard and what could have caused the crash.

Kalmaegi was last spotted over the coastal waters of Jordan town in the central province of Guimaras with sustained winds of 130 kph (81 mph) and gusts of up to 180 kph (112 mph). It was forecast to blow away into the South China Sea late Tuesday or early Wednesday after hitting the western province of Palawan.

Gwendolyn Pang, secretary-general of the Philippine Red Cross, said an unspecified number of residents were trapped on their roofs by floodwaters in the coastal town of Liloan in central Cebu province. In the city of Mandaue, also in Cebu, floodwaters were “up to the level of heads of people,” she said, adding that several cars either were submerged in floods or floated in another Cebu community.

“We have received so many calls from people asking us to rescue them from roofs and from their houses, but it’s impossible,” Pang told The Associated Press. “There are so many debris, you see cars floating so we have to wait for the flood to subside.”

In Eastern Samar, one of the east-central provinces first lashed by Kalmaegi early Tuesday, fierce wind either ripped off roofs or damaged about 300 mostly rural shanties on the island community of Homonhon, which is part of the town of Guiuan, but there were no reported deaths or injuries, Mayor Annaliza Gonzales Kwan said.

“There was no flooding at all, but just strong wind,” Kwan told the AP by telephone. “We’re Ok. We’ll make this through. We’ve been through a lot, and bigger than this.”

In November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful tropical cyclones on record, slammed ashore into Guiuan then raked across the central Philippines, leaving more than 7,300 people dead or missing, flattening entire villages and sweeping scores of ships inland. Haiyan demolished about a million houses and displaced more than 4 million people in one of the country’s poorest regions.

Kalmaegi, the 20th tropical cyclone to batter the Philippines this year, was moving westward at 25 kph (16 mph) and was forecast to start shifting away from the western section of the archipelago into the South China Sea later Tuesday or early Wednesday, forecasters said.

Ahead of the typhoon’s landfall, disaster-response officials said more than 150,000 people had evacuated to safer ground in eastern Philippine provinces. Authorities warned of torrential rains, potentially destructive winds and storm surges of up to 3 meters (nearly 10 feet).

The typhoon, which has a broad wind band spanning about 600 kilometers (373 miles), was expected to batter central island provinces, including Cebu, which is still recovering from a 6.9-magnitude earthquake on Sept. 30 that left at least 79 people dead and displaced thousands when houses collapsed or were severely damaged.

On central Negros island, villagers were warned that heavy rains could cause volcanic mudflows on Mount Kanlaon, one of the country’s 24 most active volcanoes which has been emitting plumes of ash and steam in recent months, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

Interisland ferries and fishing boats were prohibited from venturing into increasingly rough seas, stranding more than 3,500 passengers and cargo truck drivers in nearly 100 seaports, the coast guard said. At least 186 domestic flights were canceled.

The Philippines is battered by about 20 typhoons and storms each year. It is often hit by earthquakes and has more than a dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.

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