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3 weeks ago
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The super-typhoon Fung-wong has blown through the Philippines, leaving at least eight dead, 1.4 million people displaced and widespread damage in its wake.
More than 1.4 million people were evacuated across the country as the storm triggered flash flooding, storm surges, landslides and gale-force winds, Philippine authorities said on Monday. Deadly mudslides had killed least six people across the country, including three children, with others still missing.
The biggest typhoon to threaten the Philippines in years, Fung-wong was forecast to cover two-thirds of the archipelago with its 1,118-mile-wide (1,800km) band of rain and wind.
In Pandan, Catanduanes province, one of the worst-affected areas, footage and photos from disaster response authorities showed flood waters rising to the rooftops and houses being washed away. At least one person was killed in flash flooding as civil defence workers rescued more than a dozen others.
“Our personnel rescued 14 people who were trapped on the roof of a house engulfed in flood in a low-lying neighbourhood,” Roberto Monterola, a disaster-mitigation officer for Catanduanes, told the Associated Press. “A father also called in panic, saying the roof of his house was about to be ripped off by the wind. We saved him and four relatives.”
At least eight people have been confirmed dead by authorities as of Monday evening. In the northern province of Nueva Vizcaya, three children died in landslides and four others were injured, police told the Associated Press.
An elderly person was killed in a mudslide in Barlig, a town in northern mountain province. Another landslide in Lubuagan, a town in nearby Kalinga province, killed two people and two others were missing, provincial officials said late Monday. Earlier in the day, officials had reported one person drowned in the Catanduanes, and another killed when her house collapsed on her in eastern Samar.
The super-typhoon was downgraded to a typhoon in the early hours of Monday morning, as it crossed the Philippines’ largest island, where the capital city is located. The storm’s sustained wind speed had dropped from 115mph (185km/h) to 102mph, but gusts were still reaching more than 171mph, according to the state weather service PAGASA. The storm system is expected to continue weakening as it moves north toward Taiwan.
The national disaster response service (NDRRMC) said it was still working to assess damage to infrastructure and homes. Almost 3 million people had been left without power on Monday, the National Electrification Administration said, after power lines were downed and grid infrastructure damaged. About 6,000 evacuation centres have been opened to temporarily house 92,000 families.
Fung-wong battered the country just days after Typhoon Kalmaegi, which killed at least 224 people and left another 135 missing, before moving on to Vietnam, where it killed five. Searches for those still missing had to be suspended on Sunday due to safety concerns for rescue workers.
Having a second typhoon hit so soon after Kalmaegi may have worsened the destruction, as torrential rain fell upon already soaked and destabilised soils. In northern Luzon, where mudslides killed a number of children, civil defence authorities said the ground had already been saturated by heavy rains.
The climate crisis is making tropical storms and typhoons more intense and frequent. Fung-wong is the 21st typhoon to hit the Philippines in 2025. The rate of super-typhoons hitting the Philippines has increased by more than 100% over the last two decades, scientists have found. The World Bank estimates that the intense storms cause an average of US$3.5b (£2.7b) in damage to the country every year.
The Philippine president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, said on Monday that a “state of national calamity” declared over Kalmaegi and Fung-wong would be extended to a full year.
Associated Press contributed to this report
