Super Typhoon Fung-wong leaves 2 dead and forces more than 1 million to evacuate in Philippines

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.

MANILA, Philippines — Super Typhoon Fung-wong battered the Philippines’ northeastern coast ahead of landfall on Sunday, leaving at least two people dead and forcing more than a million people to evacuate from areas at risk of flash floods, landslide and tidal surges, officials said.

The typhoon could cover two-thirds of the Southeast Asian archipelago with its 1,118-mile-wide rain and wind band, forecasters said. It 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 provinces on Tuesday before pummeling Vietnam, where at least five were killed.

A villager drowned in flash floods in the eastern province of Catanduanes and another died in Catbalogan city in eastern Samar province when she was pinned by debris, officials said.

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.

A woman walks along a mud covered street in the aftermath of Typhoon Kalmaegi in Liloan, in the province of Cebu on Thursday. Jam Sta Rosa / AFP via Getty ImagesThe typhoon packed maximum winds of up to 185 kph (115 mph) and gusts of up to 230 kph (143 mph). It was located before noon Sunday over coastal waters near the town of Pandan in eastern Catanduanes province, where torrential rains and fog have obscured visibility. It’s expected to track northwestward and make landfall on the coast of Aurora or Isabela provinces later Sunday or early Monday, state forecasters said.