BBC News: A weakened Typhoon Fung-wong is now passing over the South China Sea and expected to head to Taiwan, after leaving two people dead in the Philippines.
Some 1.4 million in the Philippines had been preemptively evacuated before Fung-wong made landfall on Sunday as a super typhoon, carrying winds of 185km/h (115mph) and gusts of 230km/h (143mph).
It hit Aurora province in Luzon – the country’s most populous island – at 21:10 local time (13:10 GMT) and weakened to a typhoon hours later.
Fung-wong comes days after earlier storm Kalmaegi left nearly 200 people dead. Philippine authorities are reporting less severe damage than expected – though a number of communities are still cut off by the floods.
By daybreak, the winds from Typhoon Fung-wong which had howled all night had died down, and people came out to see the damage.
There was plenty of damage to buildings, but good preparation appears to have prevented a repeat of the casualties seen after Kalmaegi hit the central Philippines last week.
The country’s meteorological service had earlier warned of destructive winds and “high-risk of life-threatening” storm surges from the “very intense” typhoon.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled, buildings were secured and residents in low-lying and coastal areas had been urged to move to higher ground.
At a shelter in central Aurora, parents brought young children, too young to remember Typhoon Haiyan, which killed more than 6,000 people when it struck the Philippines in 2013.
“We felt very worried because of the strength of the typhoon, and we have young children to think of,” Jessa Zurbano had earlier told the BBC.
Another evacuee Patry Azul said: “Our house is made of wood and flimsy materials. We live close to the sea so we didn’t feel safe.”
