Manila, Philippines – A powerful typhoon cut across the northern Philippines on Thursday, hitting the capital with gale- force winds and pounding rain and killing at least 10 people, officials said.
Typhoon Xangsane toppled more than a dozen high-voltage power lines, causing a “total system blackout” on the main island of Luzon, said Arvee Villafuerte, spokesman of the state-run National Transmission Corp.
He said restoring the power was slowed by the extent of the damage, adding that only about 12 percent of the Luzon grid was back up four hours after it went down. The blackout and debris left Manila without traffic and street lights. Hotels and shops used their own generators.
The Office of Civil Defense and local officials reported at least 10 people died, including a drunken man who fell into a river in central Antique province and a driver pinned under the steel frames of a giant billboard that fell on his van in Manila’s financial district of Makati.
The Manila airport, which canceled domestic and international flights because of the high winds and power outages, resumed operations by early evening.
The typhoon packed maximum winds of 81 mph and gusts of up to 100 mph when it came ashore overnight in the central Bicol region, where it knocked out electricity in five provinces.
It weakened into a storm with winds of 69 mph as it passed over Manila and moved to the South China Sea Thursday evening, heading west toward Vietnam at 14 mph with gusts of up to 88 mph, forecasters said.
High winds toppled trees and heavy downpours triggered landslides, blocking some provincial roads. The typhoon also shut schools, ferries and the country’s financial markets.
Antique’s acting governor, Eduardo Fortaleza, said rescue workers evacuated about 100 residents who were trapped on an islet in the middle of a raging river in the town of Barbaza.
Some residents ferried people across streets under knee-deep water on makeshift rafts, charging about 40 cents per person.
