As the Philippines recovers from Category 5 Super Typhoon Mangkhut, police estimated the first unofficial death toll at about 66, reported the New York Times. The number is expected to rise as emergency workers continue to recover bodies.

Known locally as Ompong, the typhoon made landfall on September 14 in the Philippines.

Over 40 bodies were found following a landslide in a remote town for gold miners in Itogon in the northern island of Luzon, with dozens more missing and presumed dead, said the Guardian. Families, including children, had taken shelter in a bunkhouse converted to a chapel when part of the mountain collapsed into the building.

Nearly 300 rescuers worked with bare hands and shovels to find the bodies. Along with police and military, geologists and engineers provided support. Muddy ground and damaged roads prevented the use of heavy machinery or other technology to aid in the process.

Relatives gathered around the site, hoping to find any survivors.

“I am 99% sure they are dead,” said Victorio Palangdan, mayor of Itogon.

The workers were allegedly residing illegally in the area after the mine was closed in the 1990s. While mayor Palandgan claims the workers had permission to work in the area, the mine company, Benguet Corp., denied any knowledge of the workers, the New York Times reported.

Mudslides throughout the country caused more damage along with wind and rain, affecting about 5.7 million people, estimates the Guardian. Damage assessments are ongoing, but it may be weeks until a full analysis is complete.

Power outages in Manila, the capital, resulted in loss of communication for millions.

According to the Telegraph, the majority of people affected by the typhoon in the Philippines reside in poverty. About 1.4 million are farmers, with an additional 100,000 fishermen. With crops flooded only weeks before harvest season, these communities may continue to suffer long after the typhoon has passed with rebuilding efforts midst food and water shortages.

Super Typhoon Haiyan, also known as Yolanda, had hit the Philippines in 2013 and displaced nearly 4 million people and resulted in 6,000 deaths, CNN reported. While this typhoon did not cause nearly as much damage, it’s power was notable.

With sustaining winds as high as 170 miles per hour, typhoon Mangkhut was 75 miles higher than Hurricane Florence, reported the Wall Street Journal. Totaling a width of about 550 miles, it was the most powerful storm of 2018.

Mangkhut ripped across Southeast Asia, slamming the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

The weakened storm continued into China, where it killed four people.

Macau reported 40 injured and no fatalities. Security secretary Wong Sio-Chak attributed the lack of damage to better preparation than previous years, according to Macau Business. </s> Typhoon aims at south China after killing 28 in Philippines

TUGUEGARAO, Philippines (AP) — Typhoon Mangkhut roared toward densely populated Hong Kong and southern China on Sunday after ravaging across the northern Philippines with ferocious winds and heavy rain that left at least 28 dead in landslides and collapsed houses.

The strongest storm so far this year in the world sliced across the northern tip of Luzon Island on Saturday, a breadbasket that is also a region of flood-prone rice plains and mountain provinces with a history of deadly landslides. More than 5 million people were in the path of the typhoon, equivalent to a Category 5 Atlantic hurricane when it hit the Philippines. On Sunday morning, It packed sustained winds of 155 kilometers (96 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 190 kph (118 mph).

Hong Kong and southern China issued the highest storm signals. The Guangdong provincial office in charge of flood prevention said Sunday that nearly half a million people had been evacuated from seven cities.

The Hong Kong Observatory said although Mangkhut had weakened slightly, its extensive, intense rainbands were bringing heavy downfall and frequent squalls. Storm surge of about 3 ½ meters (9.8 feet) or above is expected at the city's waterfront Victoria Harbour, the observatory said, appealing on the public to avoid the shoreline.

Philippine National Police Director General Oscar Albayalde told The Associated Press that 20 had died in the Cordillera mountain region, four in nearby Nueva Vizcaya province and another outside of the two regions. Three more deaths have been reported in northeastern Cagayan province, where the typhoon made landfall.

Among the fatalities were an infant and a 2-year-old child who died with their parents after the couple refused to immediately evacuate from their high-risk community in a Nueva Vizcaya mountain town, said Francis Tolentino, an adviser to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

"They can't decide for themselves where to go," he said of the children, expressing frustration that the tragedy was not prevented.

Tolentino, who was assigned by Duterte to help coordinate disaster response, said at least two other people were missing.

Mayor Mauricio Domogan said at least three people died and six others were missing in his mountain city of Baguio after strong winds and rain destroyed several houses and set off landslides, which also blocked roads to the popular vacation destination. It was not immediately clear whether the dead and missing had been included in the overall death toll.

About 87,000 people had evacuated from high-risk areas of the Philippines. Tolentino and other officials advised them not to return home until the lingering danger had passed.

In Cagayan's capital, Tuguegarao, where the typhoon made landfall, Associated Press journalists saw a severely damaged public market, its roof ripped apart and wooden stalls and tarpaulin canopies in disarray. Outside a popular shopping mall, debris was scattered everywhere and government workers cleared roads of fallen trees. Many stores and houses were damaged but most residents remained indoors as occasional gusts sent small pieces of tin sheets and other debris flying dangerously.

The Tuguegarao airport terminal also was damaged, its roof and glass windows shattered by strong winds.

The typhoon struck at the start of the rice and corn harvesting season in Cagayan, a major agricultural producer, prompting farmers to scramble to save what they could of their crops, Cagayan Gov. Manuel Mamba said.

In Hong Kong, Security Minister John Lee Ka-chiu urged residents to prepare for the worst.

Cathay Pacific said all of its flights would be canceled between 2:30 a.m. local time on Sunday and 4 a.m. Monday.

"Because Mangkhut will bring winds and rains of extraordinary speeds, scope and severity, our preparation and response efforts will be greater than in the past," Lee said. "Each department must have a sense of crisis, make a comprehensive assessment and plan, and prepare for the worst."

In nearby Fujian province in China, 51,000 people were evacuated from fishing boats and around 11,000 vessels returned to port.

China's National Meteorological Center issued an alert saying Mangkhut would make landfall somewhere on the coast in Guangdong province on Sunday afternoon or evening.

Ferry services in the Qiongzhou Strait in southern China were halted on Saturday and helicopters and tugboats were dispatched to Guangdong to transfer offshore workers to safety and warn ships about the typhoon, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Mangkhut, the Thai word for mangosteen fruit, is the 15th storm this year to batter the Philippines, which is hit by about 20 a year and is considered one of the world's most disaster-prone countries. In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, flattened villages, swept ships inland and displaced more than 5 million in the central Philippines.

Associated Press writers Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, and Gillian Wong in Beijing contributed to this report. </s> Scores of people have been killed after a powerful storm swept through the Philippines over the weekend.

The tropical depression, locally named Usman, brought heavy rains on Saturday, causing catastrophic flooding and triggering deadly landslides, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management agency said Monday.

In its latest official update, the agency said the death toll had climbed to 75 with a further 12 people injured.

At least 16 others are still missing in the regions of Bicol and Eastern Visayas, officials said.

The storm affected nearly 190,000 people, officials said, with dozens of areas facing power outages as a result of infrastructure damage. As many as 69 houses were damaged, with 41 of those totally destroyed.

In the aftermath of Usman, several provinces declared a state of calamity, which allows authorities to access emergency funds and resources quickly, according to CNN Philippines.

Thousands of travelers were left stranded at airports, seaports and bus terminals after several domestic flights and ferry services were canceled, Reuters reported.

The national disaster agency said the weather system was “no longer affecting any part of the country” but forecast light rain for some areas.

Tropical weather systems often slam through the Philippines. Typhoon Mangkhut, the strongest typhoon of 2018, battered the southeast Asian country in September, packing winds of up to 270 kph (165 mph) and wreaking devastation across the northern Philippines.

More than 100 people were killed by Mangkhut before it barreled into Hong Kong and southern China.

The worst storm to hit the Philippines in a generation occurred in 2013, when Super Typhoon Yolanda killed more than 6,000 people and displaced nearly 4 million others. </s> HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong and southern China hunkered down under red alert Sunday as strong winds and heavy rain from Typhoon Mangkhut lashed the densely populated coast, a day after the biggest storm of the year left at least 28 dead from landslides and drownings in the northern Philippines.

Nearly half a million people had been evacuated from seven cities in Guangdong province, the gambling enclave of Macau closed down casinos for the first time and the Hong Kong Observatory warned people to stay away from the Victoria Harbour landmark, where storm surges battered the waterfront reinforced with sandbags. Mangkhut is due to make landfall in Guangdong later Sunday.

The national meteorological center said southern China "will face a severe test caused by wind and rain" and urged officials to prepare for possible disasters.

The Librador family inside their house that is heavily damaged by typhoon Mangkhut on September 15, 2018 in Alcala, Philippines.

On Sunday morning, the typhoon packed sustained winds of 155 kilometers (96 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 190 kph (118 mph). The Hong Kong Observatory said although Mangkhut had weakened slightly, its extensive, intense rainbands were bringing heavy downfall and frequent squalls.

Hundreds of flights were canceled. All high-speed and some normal rail services in Guangdong and Hainan provinces were also halted Sunday, the China Railway Guangzhou Group Co. said.

In Fujian province and elsewhere, tens of thousands of fishing boats returned to port and construction work came to a stop.

Philippine National Police Director General Oscar Albayalde told The Associated Press that 20 people had died in the Cordillera mountain region, four in nearby Nueva Vizcaya province and another outside of the two regions. Three more deaths have been reported in northeastern Cagayan province, where the typhoon made landfall before dawn Saturday.

An overturned tricycle is seen next to a destroyed house after Super Typhoon Mangkhut hit the town of Alcala, Cagayan province in the Philippines on September 15, 2018.

Among the fatalities were an infant and a 2-year-old child who died with their parents after the couple refused to immediately evacuate from their high-risk community in a Nueva Vizcaya mountain town, said Francis Tolentino, an adviser to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

"They can't decide for themselves where to go," he said of the children, expressing frustration that the tragedy was not prevented.

Tolentino, who was assigned by Duterte to help coordinate disaster response, said at least two other people were missing.

Mayor Mauricio Domogan said at least three people died and six others were missing in his mountain city of Baguio after strong winds and rain destroyed several houses and set off landslides, which also blocked roads to the popular vacation destination. It was not immediately clear whether the dead and missing had been included in the overall death toll.

About 87,000 people had evacuated from high-risk areas of the Philippines. Tolentino and other officials advised them not to return home until the lingering danger had passed.

An aerial view shows the fishing village of Tai O in Hong Kong on September 15, 2018, a day before the expected arrival of Super Typhoon Mangkhut.

In Cagayan's capital, Tuguegarao, where the typhoon hit land, Associated Press journalists saw a severely damaged public market, its roof ripped apart and wooden stalls and tarpaulin canopies in disarray. Outside a popular shopping mall, debris was scattered everywhere and government workers cleared roads of fallen trees.

The Tuguegarao airport terminal also was damaged, its roof and glass windows shattered by strong winds.

The typhoon struck at the start of the rice and corn harvesting season in the northern breadbasket, prompting farmers to scramble to save what they could of their crops, Cagayan Gov. Manuel Mamba said.

In Hong Kong, Security Minister John Lee Ka-chiu urged residents to prepare for the worst.

"Because Mangkhut will bring winds and rains of extraordinary speeds, scope and severity, our preparation and response efforts will be greater than in the past," Lee said. "Each department must have a sense of crisis, make a comprehensive assessment and plan, and prepare for the worst."

Cathay Pacific said all of its flights would be canceled between 2:30 a.m. Sunday and 4 a.m. Monday. The city of Shenzhen also canceled all flights between Sunday and early Monday morning. Hainan Airlines canceled 234 flights in the cities of Haikou, Sanya, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai scheduled this weekend.

For the first time in the history of Macau, next door to Hong Kong, casinos were ordered to close from 11 p.m. Saturday, the South China Morning Post reported. The gambling city suffered catastrophic flooding during Typhoon Hato last August that left 10 dead and led to accusations of corruption and incompetence at its meteorological office.

Associated Press writers Aaron Favila and Joeal Calupitan in Tuguegarao, Philippines, Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, and Gillian Wong in Beijing contributed to this report.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> HONG KONG (AP) — Typhoon Mangkhut barreled into southern China on Sunday, killing two people after lashing the Philippines with strong winds and heavy rain that left at least 64 dead and dozens more feared buried in a landslide.

More than 2.4 million people had been evacuated in southern China's Guangdong province by Sunday evening to flee the massive typhoon and nearly 50,000 fishing boats were called back to port, state media reported. It threatened to be the strongest typhoon to hit Hong Kong in nearly two decades.

That warning came after Mangkhut's devastating march through the northern Philippines, where the storm made landfall Saturday on Luzon island with sustained winds of 205 kilometers (127 miles) per hour and gusts of 255 kph (158 mph).

Police Superintendent Pelita Tacio said 34 villagers had died and 36 remained missing in landslides in two villages in Itogon town in the northern Philippine mountain province of Benguet.

Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan told The Associated Press by phone that at the height of the typhoon's onslaught Saturday afternoon, dozens of people, mostly miners and their families, rushed into an old three-story building in the village of Ucab.

The building — a former mining bunkhouse that had been transformed into a chapel — was obliterated when part of a mountain slope collapsed. Three villagers who managed to escape told authorities what happened.

"They thought they were really safe there," the mayor said. He expressed sadness that the villagers, many of them poor, had few options to survive in a region where big corporations have profited immensely from gold mines.

Rescuers were scrambling to pull out the body of a victim from the mound of mud and rocks in Ucab before Tacio, the police official, left the area Sunday.

"I could hear villagers wailing in their homes near the site of the accident," Tacio said.

The tragedy came as Florence, another major storm, unleashed catastrophic flooding across the Carolinas in the United States, where more than 30 inches of rain since Friday threatened a deluge of historic proportions as the storm slowly crawled inland from the coast. Muddy river waters swamped entire communities and the coastal city of Wilmington, North Carolina, was cut off by the flood waters.

In China, meanwhile, Mangkhut continued its destructive path, with Hong Kong bracing for a storm that could be the strongest to hit the city since Typhoon York in 1999.

A video posted online by residents showed the top corner of an old building break and fall off, while in another video, a tall building swayed as strong winds blew.

The storm shattered glass windows on commercial skyscrapers in Hong Kong, sending sheets of paper pouring out of the buildings, fluttering and spiraling as they headed for the debris-strewn ground, according to several videos posted on social media.

Mangkhut also felled trees, tore bamboo scaffolding off buildings under construction and flooded some areas of Hong Kong with waist-high waters, according to the South China Morning Post.

The paper said the heavy rains brought storm surges of 3 meters (10 feet) around Hong Kong.

The storm made landfall in the Guangdong city of Taishan at 5 p.m., packing wind speeds of 162 kilometers (100 miles) per hour. State television broadcaster CGTN reported that surging waves flooded a seaside hotel in the city of Shenzhen.

In Macau, next door to Hong Kong, casinos were ordered to close from 11 p.m. Saturday, the first time such action was taken in the city, the South China Morning Post reported. In the city's inner harbor district, the water level reached 1.5 meters (5 feet) on Sunday and was expected to rise further. The area was one of the most affected by floods from Typhoon Hato, which left 10 people dead last year.

Authorities in southern China issued a red alert, the most severe warning, as the national meteorological center said the densely populated region would face a "severe test caused by wind and rain" and urged officials to prepare for possible disasters.

Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific said all of its flights would be canceled between 2:30 a.m. Sunday and 4 a.m. Monday. The city of Shenzhen also canceled all flights between Sunday and early Monday morning. Hainan Airlines canceled 234 flights in the cities of Haikou, Sanya, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai scheduled over the weekend.

All high-speed and some normal rail services in Guangdong and Hainan provinces were also halted, the China Railway Guangzhou Group Co. said.

In the Philippines, rescuers for the Itogon landslide were hampered by rain and mud. The search and rescue operation was suspended at nightfall and was to resume at daybreak Monday, said Palangdan, the mayor. Police and their vehicles could not immediately reach the landslide-hit area because the ground was unstable and soaked from the heavy rains, regional police chief Rolando Nana told the ABS-CBN TV network.

Overall, at least 64 people have died in typhoon-related incidents in the northern Philippines, mostly from landslides and collapsed houses, according to the national police. Forty-five other people were missing and 33 were injured in the storm.

The hardest-hit area was Benguet province, where 38 people died, mostly in the two landslides in Itogon, and 37 are missing, the police said.

Still, the Philippines appeared to have been spared the high number of casualties many had feared. In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, flattened villages and displaced more than 5 million in the central Philippines. A massive evacuation of about 87,000 people from high-risk areas helped lessen potential casualties, officials said.

The typhoon struck at the start of the rice and corn harvesting season in the Philippines' northern breadbasket, prompting farmers to scramble to save what they could of their crops, Cagayan Gov. Manuel Mamba said.

Gomez reported from Manila, Philippines. Associated Press writers Aaron Favila and Joeal Calupitan in Tuguegarao, Philippines, and Gillian Wong in Beijing contributed to this report. </s> The number of people killed in the Philippines by typhoon Mangkhut rose to 25 on Sunday while dozens are missing, according to provisional data gathered as emergency teams access areas struck by the storm.

Presidential adviser Francis Tolentino, sent by President Rodrigo Duterte to monitor the response to the disaster in affected areas, confirmed these figures to reporters in Cagayan province, where the season's most powerful typhoon entered the country on Saturday morning. </s> Typhoon Yutu slammed into the Philippines Tuesday with fierce winds that sheared off roofs and snapped trees, 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, dumping heavy rain along the way.

Search crews were just beginning to assess the damage wrought by Yutu, which made landfall early Tuesday with sustained winds of 150 kilometres (95 miles) per hour and gusts up to 210.

Authorities said they were probing reports of two missing people, one from a capsized boat and the other swept away in a river.

"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 AFP 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.

The high winds flattened flimsy homes, tore the roofs off others and downed power poles as well as trees.

Landslides spawned by the storm blocked a major road in the mountainous north, isolating some residents, a civil defence official said.

Philippine disaster officials said the storm was less powerful than Mangkhut, which struck six weeks ago and left more than 100 dead. Most of the fatalities were due to a landslide in the mining area of Itogon.

Authorities near last month's deadly landslide evacuated at least 1,000 people from the Itogon area as Yutu approached.

An average of 20 typhoons and storms lash the Philippines each year, killing hundreds of people and leaving millions in near-perpetual poverty.

The Philippines' deadliest storm on record is Super Typhoon Haiyan, which left more than 7,350 people dead or missing across the central Philippines in November 2013. </s> HONG KONG (AP) — Typhoon Mangkhut wreaked havoc on the northern Philippines and southern China, leaving dozens of people dead and forcing millions to evacuate.

The massive storm made landfall on Saturday on the northeastern tip of Luzon island in the Philippines with sustained winds of 205 kilometers (127 miles) per hour and gusts of 255 kph (158 mph).

It then moved on to Hong Kong and elsewhere in southern China. Chinese state media cited the Guangdong provincial meteorological station as saying that by Sunday evening, more than 2.4 million people had been relocated and nearly 50,000 fishing boats called back to port.

The gambling enclave of Macau closed casinos for the first time and the Hong Kong Observatory warned people to stay away from the Victoria Harbour landmark, where storm surges battered the sandbag-reinforced waterfront. </s> 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 bringing heavy rains along the way.

Search crews were just beginning to assess the damage wrought by Yutu, which struck Dinapigue town in northeastern Isabela province before dawn Tuesday with sustained winds of 150 kilometers (93 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 210 kph (130mph).

It knocked down trees and power posts and ripped roofs off small houses, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Authorities said they were probing reports of one person missing after a boat capsized as the storm was barrelling toward the country.

'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 AFP 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.

The high winds flattened flimsy homes, tore the roofs off others and downed power poles as well as trees.

Philippine disaster officials said the storm was less powerful than Mangkhut, which struck six weeks ago and left more than 100 dead.

Most of the fatalities were due to a deadly landslide in the mining area of Itogon.

A month of heavy monsoon rains had left mountainous areas in the northern Philippines primed for landslides, which were unleashed by the Mangkhut's torrential downpours.

Authorities near last month's deadly landslide evacuated at least 1,000 people from the Itogon area as Yutu approached.

An average of 20 typhoons and storms lash the Philippines each year, killing hundreds of people and leaving millions in near-perpetual poverty.

The Philippines' deadliest storm on record is Super Typhoon Haiyan, which left more than 7,350 people dead or missing across the central Philippines in November 2013.

Lorelai Plaza Lastica, a resident of Isabela, the province in northeast Luzon where Yutu made landfall, said power was down and she could see debris scattered on roads, but no major damage.

'It was scary since it was so strong past midnight,' she said.

State weather agency PAGASA advised against land and sea travel in affected regions and told residents to stay indoors.

Boat services were suspended in the busy port city of Batanga as thousands of people in some mountain, coastal and river areas moved to temporary shelters on Monday after warnings were issued for landslides and waves of up to 10ft.
Super Typhoon Mangkhut (Ompong), one of the strongest in the history of the Philippines, kills at least 59 people. The typhoon struck also Hong Kong, injuring more than 200 people while four persons died in China. A woman died in Taiwan after being swept out to sea.