Typhoon Fung-wong weakens in the Philippines, killing four

One of the year's most powerful storms in the Philippines, Super Typhoon Fung-wong has killed four people, authorities said today (10 November), as they began assessing damage after its fury abated, though no reports of major destruction have flowed in yet.

More than a million people were evacuated before Fung-wong hit land yesterday, unleashing fierce howling winds, heavy rain and storm swells on the most populous island of Luzon that left some sleepless through the night.

"We could not sleep because of the winds hitting our metal sheets and tree branches falling," said Romeo Mariano, who sheltered with his grandmother in their home in the province of Isabela.

"When we got out to check our home, we saw the damage."

Early indications suggest the tally of dead "will be minimal," however, civil defence senior official Raffy Alejandro told a media briefing.

A mudslide buried a house to kill two children in the northern town of Kayapa in the province of Nueva Vizcaya, regional civil defence official Alvin Ayson said by telephone.

Landslides also isolated at least four towns in the province of Aurora, where Fung-wong made landfall, Alejandro added.

Forecast to shift northeast to Taiwan, Fung-wong was packing winds on Monday whose speeds had dropped to between 130 kph and 160 kph (80 mph to 100 mph), but remained a typhoon, whose outer bands could dump rain in coastal areas and trigger storm surges.

The storm is the 21st this year in the Philippines, coming after Typhoon Kalmaegi killed 224 last week, with five dead in Vietnam.

Fung-wong is forecast to hit Taiwan's densely populated west coast on Wednesday, though its heaviest rain is expected along the mountainous east coast, where 18 people died in September in flooding unleashed by an earlier typhoon.

The government has already ordered evacuations in the town of Guangfu, the scene of those deadly floods.