Typhoon Goni: Duterte to visit Philippine areas hit by deadly storm

The Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, has said he will visit areas hit by typhoon Goni, the strongest storm to hit anywhere in the world this year, as authorities claimed mandatory evacuations had prevented a higher death toll.

With some areas still cut off by the devastating weather system, the country’s disaster agency said in a statement that Goni had killed at least 16 people and three people were missing.

Goni – the 18th cyclone to hit the Philippines this year and among the strongest typhoons to hit there since Haiyan killed more than 6,300 people in 2013 – battered provinces south of the capital, Manila, on Sunday.

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Super typhoon Goni causes heavy floods in several Philippine provinces – video

“The goal should be zero casualties but since people were forcibly evacuated our casualties were reduced,” said Harry Roque, spokesman for Duterte.

Duterte would fly to Manila from his home town of Davao on Monday and conduct an aerial inspection of some of the worst hit areas, Roque said. Duterte had been in Davao when the typhoon struck, prompting some public criticism.

The Philippine police chief was on his way to Guinobatan in Albay province after a local lawmaker reported around 300 houses had been buried under volcanic rock and mud flows from the Mayon volcano.

Goni, which had gusts of up to 310kmh (190mph), destroyed up to 80% of homes in several towns in Catanduanes, according to Richard Gordon, chief of the Philippine Red Cross.

Catanduanes, a province of 275,000 people, was cut off, with communication and power lines down, said the national energy secretary, Alfonso Cusi.

Goni affected 2.1 million residents in Luzon, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the economy, and more than 50,000 homes were without power on Monday.

Ahead of Goni’s landfall, the Philippines was still recovering from typhoon Molave, which left 22 people dead, mostly through drowning in provinces south of Manila.

Another storm, Atsani, has been gaining strength in the Pacific Ocean as it approached the Philippines, which is usually hit by around 20 tropical storms annually.

Vietnam’s government said Goni was forecast to make landfall on the central coast on Wednesday night, dumping more heavy rain in an area where floods and landslides have already killed around 160 people and left dozens of others missing over the past month.