A Philippine military helicopter crashed during a search and rescue operation, killing all six people on board.
Published November 4, 2025
The death toll from Typhoon Karmaegi in the Philippines has reached 46 people, including six people in a military helicopter that crashed during a powerful storm that brought heavy rain and flooding to the central Philippines.
Floodwaters trapped many people on their roofs, submerged cars and submerged entire towns in Cebu on Tuesday.
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At least 39 people were killed in the central province of Cebu, local authorities said. One death was reported on the nearby island of Bohol.
The military said the Huey helicopter was on a humanitarian disaster response mission in Agusan del Sur, Mindanao. The bodies of six crew members have been recovered and an investigation is underway.
In the 24 hours before Typhoon Karmaegui, locally known as Tino, made landfall just before midnight on Monday, 183 millimeters (7 inches) of rain fell around the provincial capital Cebu City, well above the monthly average of 131 millimeters, provincial meteorologist Charmagne Varilla told AFP.
“The water level rose very quickly,” Don del Rosario, 28, from Cebu City told AFP news agency. “By 4 a.m., it was already out of control and people couldn’t get out (of their homes).”
“I’ve lived here for 28 years and this is the worst situation we’ve experienced.”
Governor Pamela Balicuatro described the situation in Cebu as “unprecedented” in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
“We expected the wind to be the danger, but it’s the water that really puts our people at risk,” Baliquatro said on Facebook. “Floods are really devastating.”
The storm gradually weakened on Tuesday, but continued to batter the country with winds of 120 km/h (74.5 mph) and gusts of 165 km/h (102.5 mph), blowing across the Visayas toward northern Palawan and the South China Sea.
Officials said tens of thousands of residents were evacuated across the Visayas, including parts of southern Luzon and northern Mindanao. The typhoon was expected to leave the Philippines late Wednesday or early Thursday.
“Due to its interaction with the terrain, Tino may weaken slightly as it passes through the Visayas. However, it is expected to remain as strong as a typhoon while passing through the country,” state meteorological bureau PAGASA said in a morning bulletin.
The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, regularly hitting disaster-prone areas where millions of people live in poverty. The Philippines was hit by two major storms in September, including Super Typhoon Lagasa, which killed at least three people and forced thousands to evacuate villages and schools in the northern Philippines.
Karmaegi is expected to make landfall in central Vietnam on Thursday night, an area already hit by heavy flooding that has left at least 40 people dead and six missing in the past week.
