Super Typhoon Fung-Wong Makes Philippine Landfall, Two Dead

Super typhoon Fung-Wong hit the Philippines’ northeast late on Sunday with 185 kilometers per hour (115 miles per hour) winds and gusts of up to 230 kph, the Associated Press reported, citing local officials.

The storm, forecast to cover up to two-thirds of the archipelago with its 1,800 kilometer-wide rain and wind band, blew into Dinalungan town in Aurora province, AP said.

Fung-Wong, locally known as Uwan, had already left two dead and prompted the evacuation of more than a million people as it approached the land mass.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered the suspension of government work in the capital region and nearby provinces on Monday, and classes at all levels until Tuesday, while work in private firms and offices is left to the discretion of their respective heads, according to a statement from his office earlier in the day.

Almost 1.18 million people were preemptively evacuated from the capital region and provinces, Civil Defense Deputy Administrator Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro said in a briefing.

A person drowned in a flash flood in Viga town in Catanduanes province, Alejandro said. In Catbalogan City in Samar province, a 64-year-old woman fell from a makeshift wooden bridge and was swept away by strong waves, a city disaster official told DZBB radio station.

In its latest bulletin, issued at 8 p.m. local time, weather bureau Pagasa pointed to “a high risk of life-threatening and damaging storm surge with peak heights exceeding three meters” within the next 48 hours in low-lying or exposed coastal communities.

It’s the second deadly storm to hit the country in the past week after Typhoon Kalmaegi slammed into the central Philippines, and left more than 200 dead. The series of tropical storms is putting a spotlight on the unfolding corruption scandal in the government’s billion-peso flood control projects, which has triggered public outrage.

The weather bureau also warned of heavy rainfall, severe winds, and storm surges even in areas far from the landfall point of Fung-Wong, which falls under the “very strong typhoon” category and is nearing the “violent typhoon” category under the Japan Meteorological Agency’s scale.

“As the sea waves strengthen, our residents see their homes made of light materials already destroyed. Their closets and other belongings are now floating in the water,” said Congressman Jose Teves, speaking of his Baras hometown in Catanduanes, on DZRH radio station earlier on Sunday. “It’s a sad situation for us.”

Almost 400 mostly domestic flights had been canceled and diverted for Nov. 8-10, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said.

Public events including in-person church services and basketball games in the capital region that includes Manila were called off.

The Philippines is battered by around 20 cyclones a year, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone nations.