The Latest on Southeast Asia: Regional Natural Disaster Updates

Three powerful typhoons battered the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, and southern China from late September through early October while a magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck the Philippines’ Cebu province. The string of natural disasters has caused more than two hundred deaths and severe damage across the region.  

Super Typhoon Ragasa, the most powerful storm of the year to date, first made landfall in northern Luzon on September 22, bringing strong winds, heavy rain, and flooding to both the Philippines and Taiwan. Ragasa has killed at least 11 people in the Philippines, with two additional people missing. In Taiwan, the storm has killed 14 people, while 17 remain missing. Two days later it slammed into China’s Guangdong province, damaging 10,000 trees. The storm lost strength before moving over Vietnam, where it did less damage than initially feared.  

Typhoon Bualoi began as a severe tropical storm that struck the central Philippines on September 25, killing 27 people. Over the next week Bualoi strengthened into a typhoon, making landfall on Vietnam’s central coast on the evening of September 28. The storm killed at least 51 people and injured 164. The typhoon also affected Thailand, killing at least seven people and impacting over 16,000 households. During the storm, two million Vietnamese households faced power outages and over 44,000 homes were damaged. Vietnamese prime minister Pham Minh Chinh ordered defense and public security ministries to marshal troops to aid local recovery efforts.  

Days later, on September 30, a strong earthquake hit north of Bogo City, northern Cebu, killing 71 people. An additional 592 were injured, and three people remain missing. Over 6,000 aftershocks plagued the area in the days after the earthquake, with the most severe being a magnitude 5.1 quake that hit Bogo City on October 3. Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. visited the area days later, vowing to restore electricity to Bogo City and pledging about $170 to each family that had lost their home.  

Most recently, Typhoon Matmo peaked on October 7, hitting Guangdong and Hainan, before weakening into a severe tropical storm over northern Vietnam. Torrential downpours flooded parts of Hanoi, killing at least eight people and displacing thousands. Thailand is also bracing for heavy rains as it recovers from severe flooding across the country that has killed 22 people. The Philippines also saw flooding across Luzon, forcing hundreds of families to evacuate. Bualoi is one of eight storms to have hit Vietnam during the third quarter of this year, causing an estimated $625.5 million in damages. The Philippines has faced four storms in less than two weeks, causing an estimated $46 million in damages, including the Cebu earthquake.  

U.S. disaster relief efforts in the region have been constrained this year due to the shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development. But the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam provided $1 million in early September in the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi, raising hopes for similar efforts now. The U.S. Embassy in Manila, along with the United Nations and other partner governments, have pledged to support the Philippine government’s recovery efforts from the Cebu earthquake. 

Lauren Mai is a Program Coordinator and Research Assistant for the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. Gregory B. Poling is a senior fellow and director for the Southeast Asia Program and the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at CSIS. 

For more political, economic, and security analysis on the region, check out our blog series, The Latest on Southeast Asia. To hear the latest news on the region and hear from Southeast Asia experts, listen and subscribe to the Southeast Asia Radio podcast on any streaming platform.