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Typhoon Molave cut a wide swath as it struck the Philippines yesterday, triggering heavy rains and hurricane-force winds that uprooted trees, flooded villages and forced more than 100,000 people to evacuate.
Those forced to flee their homes by the typhoon, known locally as Quinta, are from Albay province and other parts of the Bicol region, home to nearly six million, and from nearby Quezon province.
Most live in districts prone to landslides, floods and storm surge.
Images posted on social media showed a woman wading in water up to her shoulders and a car almost completely submerged in a town in the city of Legazpi in Albay, about 460 kilometers southeast of the capital Manila.
Disaster response officials have yet to release a full report of the damage.
Molave made landfall around 6 p.m. in Albay on Sunday and made its way through provinces in the southern part of the main island of Luzon and the northernmost part of the Visayas in the central Philippines, with winds from up to 125 km / h.
The typhoon blew up roofs, toppled walls of houses and flooded rice fields. He knocked down power poles and spread cables along the road, cutting off power to much of Albay.
Dozens of stabilizer canoes were washed ashore in a fishing village in the island province of Mindoro Oriental. Knee-high flooding and large debris were reported blocking roads in Cavite and Batangas provinces, just an hour south of Manila.
The Coast Guard said a yacht sank off the town of Bauan in Batangas. Of the eight people on board, seven were rescued and the remaining person has yet to be found. The National Council for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management reported that at least 12 fishermen who left the province of Catanduanes are now missing.
Agence France-Presse reported that at least three people, including a baby, died. But the disaster management council said it had not yet received reports of casualties.
Sea voyage operations were canceled at Batangas ports, leaving some 500 stranded.
Classes were suspended in Metro Manila, as strong winds continued to hit the capital until noon yesterday.
Molave is a Category 1 typhoon on a scale of five categories, with 5 being the strongest.
It is expected to strengthen over the South China Sea as it heads towards central Vietnam.
The Philippines is the first major land mass off the Pacific cyclone belt. It is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year.
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