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Typhoon Noul kills two, flattens houses as it lashes north-east Philippines
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Heavy rains and strong winds flattened houses in coastal areas as typhoon Noul crashed into the north-eastern tip of the Philippines on Sunday, killing two.
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More than 3,400 residents moved to shelters.
The typhoon weakened slightly after hitting land, with winds of 160km/h (99mph) near the centre and gusts of up to 195km/h on Monday. The weather bureau expected it to move north at 19km/h and head to southern Japan by Tuesday.
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On Monday the website Tropical Storm Risk downgraded Noul to category four typhoon from category five.
Noul landed on Sunday in the rice- and corn-producing province of Cagayan, about 400km (250 miles) north of the capital, Manila, toppling trees and cutting power in wide areas of the province. It is now hovering 185km north of Aparri, in Cagayan.
“The typhoon has moved away, but our problem so far is how to fix what was destroyed,” said Darwin Tobias, mayor of Santa Ana.
“The small houses of our poor town mates in coastal areas were badly hit.”
The national disaster agency said two men died in Aparri after being electrocuted as they were strapping down a tin roof during the height of the typhoon.
More than 3,400 residents from Cagayan and Isabela provinces were moved to evacuation centres in schools, gymnasiums and town halls before the typhoon, officials said.
Tobias said some residents started returning to their homes early on Monday when the rains stopped.
Despite the destruction the typhoon brought much-needed rains to rice and corn farms.
“The rains brought by Dodong [the local name of Noul] helped our farmers greatly,” said James Geronimo, the public information officer of Isabela, which is the Philippines’ top corn producer and the second biggest rice-growing province.
An average of 20 typhoons cross the Philippines each year, but the storms have become fiercer in recent years. More than 8,000 people died or went missing and about one million were made homeless by Haiyan, another category five typhoon that struck the central Philippines in 2013 and caused five-metre storm surges.
