Typhoon Mangkhut
Monday, October 1st, 2018October 1, 2018
Two weeks ago, early on the morning of Sept. 15, 2018 (September 14 in the United States), Typhoon Mangkhut struck the main Philippine island of Luzon. In a country accustomed to seasonal tempests, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) gives its own names to storms: there, Mangkhut (the named bestowed on the storm by the World Meteorological Organization) was known as Ompong. The typhoon raged regardless of name, causing deadly flooding and landslides that killed 95 people in Luzon. Mangkhut then killed one person on Taiwan and six others in China. On September 20, days after the storm dissipated, waterlogged soil on the central Philippine island of Cebu caused a landslide that killed another 85 people.
![Members of the Filipino Bureau of Fire Protection carry a victim of a landslide in Luzon’s Benguet province on Sept. 18, 2018. The landslide, triggered by Typhoon Mangkhut, killed 69 people. Filipino rescuers carry a body of a person inside a body bag at the site where people were believed to have been buried by a landslide on September 18, 2018 in in Itogon, Benguet province, Philippines. At least 36 people are feared to be buried by a landslide in the mining town of Itogon, in Benghuet province, after Super Typhoon Mangkhut triggered a massive landslide in northern Philippines which destroyed hundreds of homes and killed over 60 people. The storm slammed into the main Philippine island of Luzon over the weekend and continued its path through Hong Kong and Southern China, killing four people in the province of Guangdong as 2.5 million people were evacuated in Guangdong and on Hainan island. Credit: © Basilio Sepe, Getty Images](https://bth.worldbook.com/bth/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/pc380061.jpg)
Members of the Filipino Bureau of Fire Protection carry a victim of a landslide in Luzon’s Benguet province on Sept. 18, 2018. Credit: © Basilio Sepe, Getty Images
Typhoon Mangkhut formed as a tropical depression over the Marshall Islands in the North Pacific Ocean on September 7. The storm grew into a tropical storm near Bikini Atoll and escalated to a Category 5 (the strongest level) typhoon in the Northern Marianas. Mangkhut roared westward across the Pacific and on September 12 the storm entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR), the zone in the northwestern Pacific where PAGASA tracks dangerous weather.
![The China Sea is the name of two seas of the Pacific Ocean along the east coast of Asia. The East China Sea extends north from Taiwan to Japan and the Koreas. The South China Sea is connected to the East China Sea by the Taiwan Strait. The South China Sea includes the Gulf of Tonkin and Gulf of Thailand on the west and Manila Bay on the east. The ownership of several island groups in the area, including the Paracel, Senkaku, and Spratly islands, is disputed by neighboring countries. The islands lie near rich fishing waters, and experts believe deposits of oil and natural gas may lie under the sea floor beneath the islands. Credit: WORLD BOOK map](https://bth.worldbook.com/bth/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/lr003952.jpg)
Typhoon Mangkhut (Ompong) hit the northern Philippines and then crossed the South China Sea to Hong Kong and China’s Guangdong Province. Credit: WORLD BOOK map
In preparation for the massive storm, schools and public offices were closed in northern Luzon and people were evacuated from many coastal areas. Across the South China Sea in Hong Kong, officials issued a rare “No. 10” typhoon warning signal, the highest level of storm threat, and briefly shut down public services. Parts of China’s Guangdong Province also issued red alerts and closed schools and public offices.
Mangkhut reached the shores of Cagayán Valley, Luzon’s most northern administrative region, on September 15. The storm lashed Cagayán and the nearby Cordillera and Ilocos regions, where winds as fierce as 125 miles (205 kilometers) per hour ripped up trees and houses and torrential rains caused flash flooding and mudslides. Mangkhut then leapt to China, where deadly winds knocked down thousands of trees and shattered windows in swaying high-rise buildings. Floodwaters blocked roads and railways and inundated coastal communities. On nearby Taiwan, the lone death occurred when strong ocean currents related to the storm swept a beachgoer out to sea.