Super typhoon lashes Philippines 3 killed: The strongest storm in years to crash into the Philippines killed at least three people on Monday, leaving a wasteland of fallen trees and utility poles and sending many scurrying to safety in visibility almost zero. A retired general said preparing for the assault was like preparing for war.
Super Typhoon Megi, which blew across the northern Philippines, was scheduled to head next to China and Vietnam, where recent flooding unrelated to the storm caused 30 deaths.
On Monday, strong currents on Vietnam from the main road flooding swept a bus and 20 passengers, including a boy taken from his mother's embrace. In China, authorities evacuated 140,000 people from coastal provinces ahead of the typhoon.
Megi packed sustained winds of 140 miles (225 kilometers) per hour and gusts of 162 mph (260 kph) as it made landfall Monday at noon Palanan Bay in the province of Isabela, felling trees and utility poles and knocking out power, phone and Internet services. His fierce winds weakened slightly while crossing the mountains of northern Philippines main island of Luzon.
With more than 4,150 Filipinos riding the typhoon in the school building robust, town halls, churches and houses near the roads in and out of the coastal province of Isabela, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Manila, were deserted and blocked by collapsed trees, power lines and debris.
A man who had saved his buffalo slipped and fell into a river and drowned in the province of Cagayan, Isabela near. A woman was pinned to death when a tamarind tree crushed his house and child injured in the province of Kalinga, and one security guard died after being struck by a pine tree in Baguio city neighboring officials said.
At least six were injured in the region by falling trees, the roof collapsed and broken glass, authorities said.
As it crashed to earth, the typhoon whipped up huge waves. There was a near-zero visibility and radio reports said the wind was so powerful that people could not take more than one step at a time. Ships and fishing boats were told to stay in port, and several domestic and international flights were canceled.
The entire province of Isabela has lost power with 16 of 28 cities of Cagayan as the typhoon blew through. Cagayan Governor Alvaro Antonio said the wind was fierce, but high-blown soil, saving many paddy fields ready for harvest.
Although the initial losses were low compared to past disasters storm, retired army Maj. Gen. Benito Ramos, who heads the National Agency for Disaster Preparedness, expressed his sadness at the death. Bracing for a typhoon, "he said, was like" preparing for war. "
"It was more difficult because in the war, I could take a nap," Ramos told The Associated Press.
Thousands of military reserve officers and volunteers were on standby, and helicopters, including six Chinooks that were committed by U.S. troops holding war exercises with Filipino soldiers near Manila, said Ramos .
In July, the wrath of President Benigno Aquino III pulled his head from the weather bureau for failing to provide that a typhoon would hit Manila. The storm killed more than 100 people in Manila and outlying provinces.
This time, emergency preparedness and evacuation included the positioning of emergency relief and food days before the typhoon hit. The capital has been provided to avoid any direct impact, if schools were closed.
Megi was the most powerful typhoon to hit the Philippines in four years, government forecasters say. A howler 2006 with 155 mph (250-kph) winds triggered mudslides that buried entire villages, killing almost 1,000 people.
In Vietnam, officials say up to 31.5 inches (800 millimeters) of rain hit areas in just a few days, forcing 126,000 people to flee their homes. Earlier this month, floods killed more than 80 dead or missing.
Megi could add to the misery.
"People are exhausted," disaster official Nguyen Ngoc Giai Vietnamese said by telephone from the province of Quang Binh. "Many people were not yet returned to their homes inundated by floods earlier, while many others who have returned a few days ago were forced to evacuate again. "
China's National Meteorological Centre said Megi was to enter the South China Sea on Tuesday, threatening coastal provinces of south-east. The center issued its second alert to the highest potential "wild winds and huge waves," warning vessels to take shelter and urging the authorities to prepare for emergencies.
Nearly 140,000 people have fled homes in the island province of Hainan, where heavy rains have left thousands homeless over the weekend, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday.
Thailand also reported flooding that killed at least four people, inundated thousands of houses and vehicles and a stopped train. He also forced the evacuation of nearly 100 elephants in a popular tourist attraction north of the capital.