Typhoon Kalmaegi leaves at least 26 dead in Philippines, with survivors trapped on roofs and in cars

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Typhoon Kalmaegi has left at least 26 people dead in the Philippines, mostly in flooding set off by the storm, which barreled across the central part of the country on Tuesday, disaster response officials said. Floodwaters trapped scores of people on their roofs and submerged cars.

A further six people were killed when a Philippine air force helicopter crashed in a separate incident in southern Agusan del Sur province while transporting humanitarian aid to provinces battered by Kalmaegi.

The bodies of all those aboard the Super Huey chopper that crashed near Loreto town were recovered after a search, the military’s Eastern Mindanao Command said in a statement without providing other details, including what could have caused the crash.

Kalmaegi was last spotted over the coastal waters of Jordan town in the central province of Guimaras with sustained winds of 130 kph (81 mph) and gusts of up to 180 kph (112 mph). It was forecast to blow away into the South China Sea late Tuesday or early Wednesday after hitting the western province of Palawan.

Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV, deputy administrator of the Office of Civil Defense, said that at least 26 people were reported killed — many in flooding in Cebu province and other central island provinces pummeled by Kalmaegi, the 20th tropical cyclone to batter the Philippine archipelago this year. Details of those typhoon deaths were still being verified, he said.

Among the dead was an older villager, who drowned in floodwaters in Southern Leyte, where a province-wide power outage was reported after the typhoon made landfall around midnight in one of its eastern towns. A resident died after being hit by a fallen tree in central Bohol province, provincial officials said.

Gwendolyn Pang, secretary-general of the Philippine Red Cross, said that an unspecified number of residents were trapped on their roofs by floodwaters in the coastal town of Liloan in Cebu, and added that cars either were submerged in floods or floated in another Cebu community.

“We have received so many calls from people asking us to rescue them from roofs and from their houses, but it’s impossible,” Pang told The Associated Press on Tuesday morning. "There are so many debris, you see cars floating so we have to wait for the flood to subside."

Cebu province was still recovering from a 6.9 magnitude earthquake on Sept. 30 that left at least 79 people dead and displaced thousands when houses collapsed or were severely damaged.

In Eastern Samar, one of the east-central provinces first lashed by Kalmaegi early Tuesday, fierce wind either ripped off roofs or damaged about 300 mostly rural shanties on the island community of Homonhon, which is part of the town of Guiuan, but there were no reported deaths or injuries, Mayor Annaliza Gonzales Kwan said.

“There was no flooding at all, but just strong wind,” Kwan told the AP by telephone. “We're OK. We’ll make this through. We’ve been through a lot, and bigger than this.”

In November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful tropical cyclones on record, slammed ashore into Guiuan. it then raked across the central Philippines, leaving more than 7,300 people dead or missing, flattening entire villages and sweeping scores of ships inland. Haiyan demolished about 1 million houses and displaced more than 4 million people in one of the country’s poorest regions.

Before the typhoon’s landfall, officials said that more than 387,000 people had evacuated to safer ground in eastern and central Philippine provinces. Authorities warned of torrential rains, potentially destructive winds and storm surges of up to three meters (nearly 10 feet).

Interisland ferries and fishing boats were prohibited from venturing into increasingly rough seas, stranding more than 3,500 passengers and cargo truck drivers in nearly 100 seaports, the coast guard said. At least 186 domestic flights were canceled.

The Philippines is battered by about 20 typhoons and storms each year. The country also is often hit by earthquakes and has more than a dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.

Joeal Calupitan and Aaron Favila contributed to this report.

Vehicles lie piled on after flooding caused by Typhoon Kalmaegi in Cebu city, central Philippines, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)

Cars are piled on top of each other after flooding caused by Typhoon Kalmaegi in Cebu city, central Philippines, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)

Vehicles lie piled on after flooding caused by Typhoon Kalmaegi in Cebu city, central Philippines, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)

Aftermath of flooding caused by Typhoon Kalmaegi in Cebu city, central Philippines, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)

Cebu City fire station officials carry an individual after flooding caused by Typhoon Kalmaegi in Cebu city, central Philippines, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)

Vehicles lie piled on after flooding caused by Typhoon Kalmaegi in Cebu city, central Philippines, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)

Residents walk outside their flooded homes as Typhoon Kalmaegi affects Cebu city, central Philippines, Tuesday Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)

Residential areas are flooded by Typhoon Kalmaegi as it affects Cebu city, central Philippines, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)

A boy shows a goldfish which they caught after a nearby fish farm overflowed due to floodwaters caused by Typhoon Kalmaegi as it affects Cebu city, central Philippines, Tuesday Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)

Men use a net as they try to catch fish from a nearby fish farm which overflowed due to floodwaters caused by Typhoon Kalmaegi as it affects Cebu city, central Philippines, Tuesday Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)

Residential areas are flooded by Typhoon Kalmaegi as it affects Cebu city, central Philippines, Tuesday Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Hernandez)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An ailing astronaut returned to Earth with three others on Thursday, ending their space station mission more than a month early in NASA’s first medical evacuation.

SpaceX guided the capsule to a middle-of-the-night splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego, less than 11 hours after the astronauts exited the International Space Station.

“It’s so good to be home,” said NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, the capsule commander.

It was an unexpected finish to a mission that began in August and left the orbiting lab with only one American and two Russians on board. NASA and SpaceX said they would try to move up the launch of a fresh crew of four; liftoff is currently targeted for mid-February.

Cardman and NASA’s Mike Fincke were joined on the return by Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Platonov. Officials have refused to identify the astronaut who had the health problem or explain what happened, citing medical privacy.

While the astronaut was stable in orbit, NASA wanted them back on Earth as soon as possible to receive proper care and diagnostic testing. The entry and splashdown required no special changes or accommodations, officials said, and the recovery ship had its usual allotment of medical experts on board. It was not immediately known when the astronauts would fly from California to their home base in Houston. Platonov’s return to Moscow was also unclear.

NASA stressed repeatedly over the past week that this was not an emergency. The astronaut fell sick or was injured on Jan. 7, prompting NASA to call off the next day’s spacewalk by Cardman and Fincke, and ultimately resulting in the early return. It was the first time NASA cut short a spaceflight for medical reasons. The Russians had done so decades ago.

The space station has gotten by with three astronauts before, sometimes even with just two. NASA said it will be unable to perform a spacewalk, even for an emergency, until the arrival of the next crew, which has two Americans, one French and one Russian astronaut.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov is helped out of the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship SHANNON after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui is helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

NASA astronaut Mike Fincke is helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

NASA astronaut Zena Cardman is helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 capsule being taken into the recovery vessel after crew members re entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows NASA astronaut Mike Fincke getting helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows NASA Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui being helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows Russian astronaut Oleg Platonov being helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, left, NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui are seen inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship SHANNON shortly after having landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Long Beach, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows NASA astronaut Zena Cardman being helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA TV shows the SpaceX Dragon departing from the International Space Station shortly after undocking with four NASA Crew-11 members inside on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This photo provided by NASA shows clockwise from bottom left are, NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui gathering for a crew portrait wearing their Dragon pressure suits during a suit verification check inside the International Space Station’s Kibo laboratory module, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows recovery vessels approaching the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 capsule to evacuate one of the crew members after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 members re entering the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 members re entering the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)