Manila, Philippines – November 5, 2025 – Typhoon Kalmaegi, the 20th tropical cyclone to strike the Philippines in 2025 and locally designated as Tino, has left a path of destruction across the Visayas, claiming 66 lives, according to the latest bulletin from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC). The agency, issuing its update on Wednesday, November 5, also confirmed that 26 individuals remain unaccounted for while 10 others sustained injuries requiring medical attention. Rescue teams continue to navigate flooded roads and debris-strewn barangays in a race against time to locate the missing.
Cebu province, the epicenter of the calamity, presents a landscape of devastation that residents say rivals any storm in recent decades. In the highly urbanized city of Talisay, entire subdivisions have been reduced to piles of splintered timber, corrugated iron, and shattered concrete. Streets once bustling with commerce are now impassable corridors clogged with uprooted trees, overturned vehicles, and household belongings scattered like confetti in the wind. Floodwaters, which surged to unprecedented levels in these concrete-heavy districts, have receded in some areas, revealing a thick layer of mud that coats everything from sidewalks to second-story balconies.
Among the survivors picking through the wreckage is 38-year-old Eilene Oken, a mother of three whose modest two-story home in Barangay San Isidro was obliterated overnight. Standing barefoot on the concrete foundation that is all that remains of her property, Oken clutched a waterlogged photo album as she recounted the ordeal. “We saved for twelve years—every overtime shift, every bonus—to build this house brick by brick,” she said, her voice cracking. “In one night, it vanished. But my husband and children are safe in the evacuation center, and that is the only thing that matters now.” Her family is among the more than 200,000 people forcibly relocated from high-risk zones across the Visayas, southern Luzon, and northern Mindanao in the 48 hours preceding Kalmaegi’s landfall.
The flooding that ravaged Cebu’s urban centers was described by local hydrologists as a “perfect storm” of meteorological factors. Torrential rains exceeding 400 millimeters in 12 hours combined with storm surges that topped three meters in coastal municipalities, creating a deluge that no drainage system—however modern—could handle. Witnesses reported seeing sedans, delivery trucks, and even 20-foot shipping containers being swept downstream like toys in the brown torrent. In the port area of Cebu City, a stack of containers toppled onto a major thoroughfare, crushing several vehicles beneath them.
The human toll includes a particularly tragic incident on Mindanao, where six Philippine Air Force personnel perished when their UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a humanitarian supply drop to isolated communities. The aircraft, laden with food packs, water purifiers, and medical kits, encountered severe turbulence and zero visibility amid Kalmaegi’s outer rainbands. Military investigators have recovered the flight data recorder and are examining whether mechanical failure or extreme weather was the primary cause. The loss of the crew has cast a somber pall over an already grieving nation.
Compounding the disaster is its cruel timing. Just five weeks ago, on September 28, 2025, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake rattled northern Cebu, killing 28 people and displacing more than 15,000 families. Many of those quake victims had only recently returned to patched-up homes when Kalmaegi struck, rendering temporary shelters uninhabitable and erasing whatever fragile progress had been made. “We fixed the cracks from the earthquake, only to lose everything to the flood,” said Barangay Captain Rosario Lim of Liloan town, where landslide-prone hillsides gave way under saturated soil.
Meteorologically, Kalmaegi made landfall over Eastern Samar at approximately 2:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday, November 4, packing maximum sustained winds of 150 kph near the center. Friction with the Sierra Madre mountain range caused a slight downgrade as it traversed the Visayas, but the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) reported that by Wednesday afternoon the storm had re-emerged over the West Philippine Sea with sustained winds of 130 kph and gusts reaching 180 kph. Tracking west-northwest at 20 kph, Kalmaegi is moving away from Palawan and is projected to intensify once more over the warm waters of the South China Sea.
PAGASA’s latest advisory warns of “violent winds and heavy to intense rainfall” along its trajectory, with the storm expected to exit the Philippine Area of Responsibility by Thursday evening. Even as the center moves away, however, extensive rainbands continue to dump precipitation over western sections of Luzon and the Visayas, prompting flash-flood and landslide alerts in 27 provinces.
Pre-storm evacuations were executed with military precision. More than 1,200 evacuation centers—primarily public schools, gymnasiums, and covered courts—opened their doors, though many quickly reached capacity. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) distributed over 150,000 family food packs in the first 72 hours, supplemented by donations from private corporations and international NGOs. Power outages affected 1.8 million households at the storm’s peak, with restoration crews working around the clock to repair downed lines. Telecommunications remained spotty, with only 62 percent of cell sites operational in Cebu by Wednesday evening.
Transportation networks ground to a halt. Mactan-Cebu International Airport canceled 182 flights—92 arrivals and 90 departures—stranding thousands of passengers. Ferry services across the Visayas were suspended indefinitely, and roll-on/roll-off vessels were ordered to seek shelter in protected harbors. The Philippine Coast Guard reported rescuing 47 fishermen whose bancas capsized in rough seas off the coast of Negros Oriental.
As Kalmaegi barrels toward Vietnam, Hanoi is mobilizing on a war footing. The typhoon is forecast to make landfall in the central provinces of Quang Binh, Quang Tri, or Thua Thien-Hue on Friday, November 7, potentially as a Category 3 system. The region is already waterlogged from a week of monsoon rains that killed at least 40 people and left six others missing. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, chairing an emergency teleconference on Tuesday, directed all ministries and provincial People’s Committees to enact “Directive 05”—the highest level of disaster response. This includes mandatory evacuation of 300,000 residents from low-lying coastal communes, stockpiling of 500,000 food rations, and deployment of 40,000 soldiers and militia members for rescue and relief.
Vietnamese meteorologists predict rainfall accumulations of 300–600 mm in the impact zone, raising the specter of catastrophic riverine flooding along the Gianh, Huong, and Thu Bon rivers. Sandbag barricades are being erected around Hue’s historic citadel, and fishing fleets have been recalled to port. The Ministry of Agriculture has accelerated rice harvesting in affected paddies to salvage what remains of the winter-spring crop.
In the Philippines, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. conducted an aerial inspection of Cebu on Wednesday morning, pledging an initial ₱1.5 billion in rehabilitation funds. “Reconstruction will not be easy, but we will build back stronger—using typhoon-resilient designs and elevated foundations,” he told survivors at a relief distribution center in Talisay. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) has activated its flash appeal mechanism, while the European Union and the United States have committed immediate grants of €2 million and $5 million, respectively.
Climate scientists note that Kalmaegi’s intensity aligns with a disturbing trend: sea surface temperatures in the western Pacific are 1.2 °C above the long-term average, providing extra fuel for rapid intensification. The Philippines, which lies squarely in the typhoon belt, has seen eight storms make landfall in 2025 alone—three of them reaching super-typhoon status.
For now, the people of Cebu focus on survival and salvage. Community kitchens serve hot meals of rice and canned sardines. Children fashion toys from debris. And in the shadow of what was once Eilene Oken’s home, neighbors form human chains to pass buckets of mud out of flooded ground floors. “We have lost much,” Oken said, wiping sweat from her brow, “but we still have each other. That is enough to start again.”
