Typhoon Yutu slammed into the Philippines on Tuesday with fierce winds that sheared off roofs and snapped trees in half, after thousands were evacuated ahead of the powerful storm’s arrival.
Cutting a path just south of last month’s Typhoon Mangkhut, which killed dozens, the new storm tore across the Philippines’ most populous island and dumped heavy rains along the way.
Search crews were just beginning assess the damage wrought by Yutu, which made landfall early Tuesday with sustained winds of 150kph and gusts up to 210 kph.
Authorities said they were probing reports of one person missing after a boat capsized as the storm was barrelling toward the disaster-prone nation.
“We see some branches on the roads and so on, but it is the flooding that is destroying houses here,” International Federation of the Red Cross spokeswoman Caroline Haga told media from Nueva Vizcaya province.
“People are needing to be rescued.”
Nearly 10,000 people fled their homes ahead of Yutu’s arrival because they live in low-lying areas susceptible to flooding and rivers tend to overflow their banks.
