MANILA: A weakening Typhoon Fung-wong departed the Philippines over the South China Sea on Monday morning, after its driving winds and heavy rain killed at least two people and forced more than a million to evacuate. Fung-wong, with a footprint that spanned nearly the entirety of the archipelago, slammed into the country&#39;s eastern seaboard on Sunday evening as a &quot;super typhoon&quot; after uprooting trees and swamping towns further south. It landed just days after Typhoon Kalmaegi swept through the islands of the central Philippines, claiming at least 224 lives. Schools and government offices across swathes of the main island, Luzon, including Manila, were closed on Monday, though predicted heavy rains had yet to materialize. In Aurora province, where Fung-wong made landfall the night before, rescue worker Geofry Parrocha said officials were only now able to assess the damage. &quot;We&#39;re seeing many damaged houses and some of our main roads were not passable due to landslides,&quot; he told AFP Monday morning from Dipaculao town, where power had yet to be restored. &quot;We couldn&#39;t mobilize last night because the rain was heavy and the volume of water was high.&quot; Aurora Taay, mayor of the province&#39;s Dingalan town, told a Facebook Live audience that numerous houses and boats along the shoreline had been smashed amid massive waves. Turning towards Taiwan&nbsp;The state weather service said on Monday that the typhoon, which saw 1.4 million people evacuated, was now expected to turn towards Taiwan as it continued to weaken. On Sunday, Samar province, one of those hammered by Typhoon Kalmaegi last week, recorded the first known death from Fung-wong. Rescuer Juniel Tagarino in Catbalogan City told AFP the body of a 64-year-old woman attempting to evacuate had been pulled out from under debris and fallen trees. &quot;The wind was so strong and the rain was heavy... According to her family members, she might have forgotten something and went back inside her house,&quot; Tagarino said. The civil defense office later confirmed a second death, a person who drowned in a flash flood on Catanduanes island. Further north, in Cagayan province, people sheltering in an evacuation center told AFP that fear of flooding had convinced them to leave their homes. &quot;We often suffer flooding in our home, so when we were told to evacuate, we evacuated, because we would be trapped,&quot; said Loretta Salquina. Scientists warn that storms are becoming more powerful due to human-driven climate change. Warmer oceans allow typhoons to strengthen rapidly, and a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, meaning heavier rainfall. &#39;The ground was shaking&#39;&nbsp;Catanduanes was lashed by heavy wind and rain early Sunday, with storm surges sending waves hurtling over streets and floodwaters inundating homes in some areas. &quot;The waves started roaring around 7:00 am. When the waves hit the seawall, it felt like the ground was shaking,&quot; Edson Casarino, 33, a resident of Catanduanes&#39; Virac town, told AFP. Video verified by AFP showed a church in the town surrounded by floodwaters that reached halfway up its entrance. Major flooding was also reported in southern Luzon&#39;s Bicol region. In Guinobatan, a town of about 80,000 in Bicol&#39;s Albay province, verified video showed streets transformed into raging torrents of water. Only days earlier, Typhoon Kalmaegi sent floodwaters rushing through the towns and cities of Cebu and Negros islands, sweeping away cars, riverside shanties, and massive shipping containers. Search and rescue efforts in Cebu were suspended on Saturday due to safety concerns over the approaching super typhoon.

Asia

State weather service says typhoon now expected to turn towards Taiwan as it continues to weaken; Schools and government offices across swathes of main island Luzon, including Manila, are closed on Monday, though predicted heavy rains had yet to materialize.

Weakening Typhoon Fung-wong exits Philippines after displacing 1.4 million

LILOAN: Typhoon Kalmaegi killed at least 140 people and left another 127 missing after unleashing devastating flooding across the central Philippines, official figures showed Thursday, as the storm headed towards Vietnam. Floodwaters described as unprecedented rushed through Cebu province&#39;s towns and cities this week, sweeping away cars, riverside shanties and even massive shipping containers. The national civil defense office confirmed on Thursday 114 reported deaths, though that tally did not include an additional 28 recorded by Cebu provincial authorities. In Liloan, a town near Cebu City where 35 bodies have been recovered from flooded areas, AFP reporters saw cars still piled atop each other by floodwaters and roofs torn off buildings as residents attempted to dig out of the mud. Christine Aton&#39;s sister Michelle, who has a disability, was among Liloan&#39;s victims, trapped in her bedroom as the floodwaters rose inside their house. &quot;We tried to pry open (her bedroom door) with a kitchen knife and a crowbar but it wouldn&#39;t budge.... Then the refrigerator started to float,&quot; Aton, 29, said. &quot;I opened a window and my father and I swam out. We were crying because we wanted to save my older sister. &quot;But my father told me we couldn&#39;t do anything for her, that all three of us might end up dead.&quot; On neighboring Negros Island, where at least 30 people were killed, Kalmaegi&#39;s driving rain loosened volcanic mudflow that buried homes in Canlaon City, police Lieutenant Stephen Polinar told AFP on Wednesday. &quot;Eruptions of Kanlaon volcano since last year deposited volcanic material on its upper sections. When the rain fell, those deposits rumbled down onto the villages,&quot; he told AFP. The national death tally included six crew members of a military helicopter that crashed while on a typhoon relief mission. The water was ragingOn Wednesday, residents of Cebu&#39;s most-affected areas were busily cleaning up streets that had been rivers less than 24 hours earlier. &quot;Around four or five in the morning, the water was so strong that you couldn&#39;t even step outside,&quot; said Reynaldo Vergara, 53, adding that everything in his small shop in Mandaue had been lost when a nearby river overflowed. &quot;Nothing like this has ever happened. The water was raging.&quot; In nearby Talisay, where an informal settlement along a riverbank was washed away, AFP found 26-year-old Regie Mallorca already at work rebuilding his home. &quot;This will take time because I don&#39;t have the money yet. It will take months,&quot; he said as he mixed cement and sand atop the rubble. The area around Cebu City was deluged with 18.3 centimeters (around seven inches) of rain in the 24 hours before Kalmaegi&#39;s landfall, well over its 13.1 centimeters monthly average, weather specialist Charmagne Varilla told AFP. On Tuesday, provincial governor Pamela Baricuatro called the situation &quot;unprecedented&quot; and &quot;devastating.&quot; Scientists warn that storms are becoming more powerful due to human-driven climate change. Warmer oceans allow typhoons to strengthen rapidly, and a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, meaning heavier rainfall. In total, nearly 800,000 people were moved from the typhoon&#39;s path. Urgent and dangerousKalmaegi was gathering strength on Thursday as it headed towards neighboring Vietnam, where fear was mounting that the typhoon could compound the damage of a week of flooding that has already claimed 47 lives. As of 8 am, the storm boasted windspeeds of 155 kilometers (96 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 190 kph. The typhoon is forecast to make landfall in central Vietnam late Thursday, bringing waves as high as eight meters (26 feet) and powerful storm surges, according to the national weather bureau. Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha urged local authorities to treat Kalmaegi as &quot;urgent and dangerous,&quot; calling it &quot;a very abnormal&quot; storm in a statement Wednesday. Ten typhoons or tropical storms usually affect Vietnam, directly or offshore, in a given year, but Typhoon Kalmaegi is set to be the 13th of 2025. The Philippines has already reached its average of 20 such storms a year with Kalmaegi, weather specialist Varilla told AFP, adding at least &quot;three to five more&quot; storms could be expected by December&#39;s end.

Natural Disaster

The national civil defense office confirms 114 reported deaths, though that tally did not include an additional 28 recorded by Cebu provincial authorities.

Articles tagged with "Philippines typhoon"

Weakening Typhoon Fung-wong exits Philippines after displacing 1.4 million

Philippine death toll tops 140 as typhoon heads towards Vietnam