![A resident tries to salavage his destroyed roof blown away at the heigh of typhoon Haima in Carranglan town, Nueva Ecija province, north of Manila on October 20, 2016. One of the most powerful typhoons to ever hit the Philippines destroyed houses, tore roofs off schools and ripped giant trees out of the ground, but there were no immediate reports of deaths. / AFP PHOTO / TED ALJIBE / The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadata of this photo by TED ALJIBE has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [Carranglan] instead of [Karanglan]. Please immediately remove the erroneous mention[s] from all your online services and delete it (them) from your servers. If you have been authorized by AFP to distribute it (them) to third parties, please ensure that the same actions are carried out by them. Failure to promptly comply with these instructions will entail liability on your part for any continued or post notification usage. Therefore we thank you very much for all your attention and prompt action. We are sorry for the inconvenience this notification may cause and remain at your disposal for any further information you may require. /](https://www.eaglenews.ph/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/000_HB3TZ.jpg)
One of the most powerful typhoons to ever hit the Philippines destroyed houses, tore roofs off schools and ripped giant trees out of the ground, but there were no immediate reports of deaths. / AFP PHOTO / TED ALJIBE /
by Ted Aljibe
Agence France Presse
Ilagan, Philippines | AFP | — One of the most powerful typhoons to ever hit the Philippines killed at least four people as it destroyed houses, tore roofs off schools and uprooted giant trees on Thursday.
Super Typhoon Haima struck late on Wednesday night with winds similar to those of catastrophic Haiyan in 2013, which was then the strongest storm to strike the disaster-prone Southeast Asian archipelago and claimed more than 7,350 lives.
Haima then roared across mountain and farming communities of the northern regions of the main island of Luzon overnight, causing widespread destruction and killing at least four people who were buried by landslides, authorities said.
“The winds were so strong. They blew away our roof,” said Crecy Ramos, 46, a street stall owner in Ilagan, one of the main northern cities with a population of 130,000 people, as she started to repair her ramshackle home on Thursday afternoon.
“Everyone in our community had their roofs blown away.”
Haima hit coastal towns facing the Pacific Ocean with sustained winds of 225 kilometres (140 miles) an hour, and wind gusts of up to 315 kilometres.
It weakened overnight as it rammed into giant mountain ranges and by Thursday morning had passed over the western edge of Luzon and into the South China Sea, heading towards southern China.
Authorities said two of those killed, aged 16 and 17, were buried in a landslide while sleeping in a house in Ifugao, a mountainous area that is home to stunning stepped rice terraces that are listed by the United Nations as a World Heritage site.
Two other people were buried in a shanty in another mountainous region, and one person was missing, the disaster risk council’s division in the northern Philippines reported.
“Rice and corn plants as far as the eye can see are flattened,” Villamor Visaya, a university teacher in Ilagan, one of the main northern cities with a population of 130,000 people, told AFP by telephone.
“Many houses were destroyed. I saw one school building crushed under a large tree… it was as if our house was being pulled from its foundations.”
Haima hit coastal towns facing the Pacific Ocean with sustained winds of 225 kilometres (140 miles) an hour, and wind gusts of up to 315 kilometres.
In Carranglan, a town of about 40,000 people in the mountains on the southern edge of the typhoon’s direct path, landslides had left a bus trapped in mud on Thursday morning.
Men walked knee-deep through mud and floodwaters across a destroyed road in Carranglan, while aluminium roof sheeting lay on a nearby hillside.
– Prayers and preparations –
President Rodrigo Duterte said on Wednesday night all possible preparations had been made for Haima, with tens of thousands of people evacuated, but he still struck an ominous tone.
“We only pray we be spared the destruction such as the previous times, which brought agony and suffering,” Duterte said in Beijing, where he was on a state visit.
“But we are ready. Everything has been deployed.”
About 10 million people across the northern parts of Luzon were at risk, the government’s disaster risk management council said on Wednesday.
The Philippine islands are often the first major landmass to be hit by storms that generate over the Pacific Ocean. The Southeast Asian archipelago endures about 20 major storms each year, many of them deadly.
The most powerful and deadliest was Haiyan, which destroyed entire towns in heavily populated areas of the central Philippines.
The capital of Manila is about 350 kilometres south of where Haima struck land.
However the city, with about 12 million people, was not affected, hit only by moderate winds overnight and little rain.
Haima was the second typhoon to hit the northern Philippines in a week, after Sarika struck on Sunday claiming at least one life and leaving three people missing.
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