A
powerful typhoon battered the
northern Philippines on Monday, toppling power lines and dumping heavy rain
across cities and food-growing plains. The storm left at least two people dead
and 44 missing.
Typhoon Utor, described as the
strongest globally this year, slammed ashore in mountainous eastern Aurora
province with sustained winds of 175 kilometers (109 miles) per hour and gusts
of up to 210 kph (130 mph).
Footage from ABS-CBN TV network showed
a woman swept away by a raging river in neighboring Isabela province. The woman
waved her hands for help as she struggled to hang on to debris while being
buffeted by huge waves in the muddy waters. It was not known what happened to
her.
"She has not been found, so she
is missing," said Norma Talosig, a regional civil defense director. She
said the woman lived alone in a low-lying area and had refused to be evacuated.
Talosig said that in northern Nueva
Vizcaya province, a 53-year-old farmer drowned while trying to rescue his water
buffalo from a swift-moving flood. The animal survived.
In mountainous Benguet province, a
22-year-old man died on the way to a hospital after he was pulled from a
landslide that hit a canal he was clearing, said regional civil defense
official Andrew Alex Uy.
The typhoon triggered waves of up to
2.5 meters (eight feet) and left scores of fishermen missing.
In northern Pangasinan province, 25
fishermen on three boats failed to return home, said provincial police
spokesman Senior Inspector Ryan Manongdo.
Eighteen other fishermen from the
eastern provinces of Catanduanes and Camarines Norte also were unaccounted for.
Authorities were hoping they took shelter in coves and nearby islands, said
Office of Civil Defense regional director Bernardo Alejandro IV.
"I hope they're just waiting for
the typhoon to pass and will show up as soon as the weather clears," he
said. A higher number of missing had been reported earlier, but some of the
fishermen have returned home.
As of late Monday, Utor picked up
speed as it continued to move away from the country. Government forecaster Joey
Figuracion said the typhoon was 230 kilometers (140 miles) northwest of
northern Ilocos Sur province's coast, and moving to the northwest.
It was forecast to reach southern
China on Wednesday.
Office of Civil Defense Administrator
Eduardo del Rosario said 1,895 people from three regions had to be evacuated to
shelters, with 673 houses damaged.
Utor, the Marshellese word for a
squall line, was the 12th of about 20 storms and typhoons expected to lash the
Philippines this year.
AP