Super Typhoon Fung-wong, the biggest storm to threaten the Philippines this year, started battering the country’s northeastern coast ahead of landfall on Sunday.
According to NBC News, as the storm approaches it has knocked down power, forced the evacuation of nearly a million people and prompting the defense chief to warn many others to evacuate to safety from high-risk villages before it’s too late.
Fung-wong, which could cover two-thirds of the Southeast Asian archipelago with its 994-mile-wide rain and wind band, approached from the Pacific while the Philippines was still dealing with the devastation wrought by Typhoon Kalmaegi, which left at least 224 people dead in central island provinces on Tuesday before pummeling Vietnam, where at least five were killed.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has declared a state of emergency due to the extensive devastation caused by Kalmaegi and the expected calamity from Fung-wong, which is called Uwan in the Philippines.
Fung-wong, with winds of up to 115 mph and gusts of up to 143 mph, was spotted by government forecasters before noon Sunday over coastal waters near the town of Pandan in eastern Catanduanes province, where torrential rains and fog have obscured visibility.
The typhoon is expected to track northwestward and make landfall on the coast of Aurora or Isabela province later Sunday or early Monday, state forecasters said.
