Typhoon death toll tops 140 in Philippines

LILOAN, Philippines — Typhoon Kalmaegi has killed at least 142 people and left another 127 missing after unleashing devastating flooding across the central Philippines, official figures showed on Thursday, as the storm headed toward Vietnam.

The typhoon is so far the globe's deadliest of 2025, according to disaster database EM-DAT. Trami, also in the Philippines, was last year's third-deadliest typhoon with 191 fatalities.

Floodwaters, described as unprecedented, rushed through Cebu Province's towns and cities this week, sweeping away cars, riverside shanties and even massive shipping containers.

The national civil defense office on Thursday confirmed 114 deaths, though that tally did not include an additional 28 recorded by Cebu provincial authorities. More than 500,000 Filipinos remain displaced.

In Liloan, a town near Cebu City where 35 bodies have been recovered, AFP reporters saw cars piled atop each other by floodwaters and roofs torn off buildings as residents attempted to dig out of the mud.

Christine Aton's sister Michelle, who has a disability, was among Liloan's victims, trapped in her bedroom as the floodwaters rose inside their house.

"We tried to pry open (her bedroom door) with a kitchen knife and a crowbar, but it wouldn't budge. ... Then the refrigerator started to float," Aton, 29, said.

"I opened a window and my father and I swam out. We were crying because we wanted to save my older sister.

"But my father told me we couldn't do anything for her, that all three of us might end up dead."

On Thursday, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr declared a "state of national calamity", a move that allowed the government to release funding for aid and impose price ceilings on basic necessities.

"Unfortunately, there's another (typhoon) coming with the potential to become an even stronger one," he said at an afternoon news briefing.

Vietnam evacuated thousands of people from coastal areas as Kalmaegi closed in on its storm-battered central belt on Thursday.

"This is a huge typhoon with terrible devastating capacity," said Pham Anh Tuan, a top official in Gia Lai Province, where state media said more than 7,000 people had been evacuated as of Wednesday night.

Agencies Via Xinhua