Danger zone: Waves entering the streets of Virac along the coast of Catanduanes island, as Super Typhoon Fung-wong approaches the Philippines, in this screencap by Facebook user Edson Casarino. — AFP
Super Typhoon Fung-wong, the biggest storm to threaten the Philippines this year, started battering the country’s northeastern coast ahead of landfall yesterday, knocking out power, forcing the evacuation of more than a million people and prompting the defence chief to warn many others to evacuate to safety from high-risk villages before it’s too late.
Fung-wong, which could cover two-thirds of the South-East Asian archipelago with its 1,600km-wide rain and wind band, approached from the Pacific while the Philippines is still dealing with the devastation wrought by Typhoon Kalmaegi, which left at least 224 people dead in central island provinces on Tuesday before pummelling Vietnam, where at least five were killed.
