Manila: Super Typhoon Fung-wong slammed ashore on Sunday in the northeastern coast of the Philippines, where the massive storm had already left at least two people dead and forced more than a million people to evacuate from flood- and landslide-prone areas, officials said.
The typhoon blew into Dinalungan town in Aurora province Sunday night after setting off fierce rain and wind in northeastern Philippine provinces all day from offshore, with sustained winds of up to 185 kph (115 mph) and gusts of up to 230 kph (143 mph).
The biggest typhoon to threaten the Philippines in years, Fung-wong could cover two-thirds of the archipelago with its 1,800-km-wide rain and wind band, forecasters said. It approached from the Pacific while the Philippines was still dealing with the devastation wrought by Typhoon Kalmaegi, which left at least 224 people dead in central provinces on Tuesday before pummelling Vietnam, where at least five were killed.
A villager drowned in flash floods in the eastern province of Catanduanes and another died in Catbalogan city in eastern Samar province when she was hit by debris, officials said.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has declared a state of
emergency due to the extensive devastation caused by Kalmaegi and the expected calamity from Fung-wong.
Tropical cyclones with sustained winds of 185 kph or higher are categorised in the Philippines as a super typhoon, a designation adopted years ago to underscore the urgency tied to more extreme weather disturbances.