CAUAYAN, Philippines: A super typhoon that killed 14 people and flattened forests and crops in the northern Philippines dumped heavy rains on the capital Tuesday as it headed across the sea toward southern China. Typhoon Megi, locally codenamed Juan, struck the Philippines Monday with ferocious winds of 140 miles (225 kilometers) per hour, but initial assessments showed relatively light damage and casualties, partly because the storm struck sparsely populated areas. Philippine officials also cited their massive emergency preparations days ahead of the storm. Food vendor Nesie Callaotit, her husband and two children were hurriedly packing clothes to flee to safety when the wind yanked off half of their tin roof, exposing their house in northeastern Isabela province to pounding rain and the horrifying wind. They held on to a wooden post for three hours, weeping and praying together, until the torrents eased. “All of us were in tears,” the 40-year-old Callaotit said. “We thought it was our last day together.” After it exited into the South China Sea Tuesday, Megi was almost stationary packing winds of 108 mph (175 kph) but was forecast to regain strength before its expected landfall in southern China Thursday. Chinese authorities evacuated 140,000 people from a coastal province. Isabela province in the northeast Philippines, Megi's entry point, bore the brunt of the Typhoon Megi's destruction while more than 8,000 people rode out the typhoon in sturdy school buildings, town halls, churches and relatives' homes. Roads in and out of the coastal province were deserted and blocked by collapsed trees, power lines and debris.Iron-sheet roofs on many of the houses were blown away. In Tamauini town, Ariel Marzan said he escaped just minutes before his house tumbled amid winds so strong his roof was swept into a nearby rice field 30 yards (meters) away. “I didn't expect it to be so strong,” he said as he surveyed the damage and picked up the strewn pieces of his household. Nearby coconut and banana groves were flattened. At least 14 deaths in Cagayan, Isabela and Pangasinan provinces were blamed on the typhoon, including at least six drownings. In Pangasinan province, a mother, her daughter and son were pinned to death when a tree collapsed on their house, disaster official Eugene Cabrera said. Even as the typhoon moved away, its massive outer bands still stretched over much of western Luzon and drenched the capital, Manila, and surrounding areas, snarling traffic and sending about 1,000 people out of their homes into temporary shelters. President Benigno Aquino III said Tuesday that although the typhoon caused significant damage, the loss of life was minimal and “could have been much greater had we not prepared for the storm.”
