Philippines cleans up after typhoon hit

MANILA — Filipinos cleared fallen trees and repaired damaged houses on Monday after the sixth major storm to batter the Philippines in a month smashed flimsy buildings, knocked out power and claimed at least eight lives.

The national weather service had warned of a "potentially catastrophic" impact from Man-yi, which was a super typhoon when it hit over the weekend, but President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said on Monday it "wasn't as bad as we feared".

Packing maximum sustained wind speeds of 185 kilometers an hour, Man-yi slammed into Catanduanes island late on Saturday, and the main island of Luzon on Sunday afternoon.

It uprooted trees, brought down power lines, crushed wooden houses and triggered landslides.

The death toll from the typhoon has risen to eight.

It includes a 79-year-old man who was killed in Camarines Norte after his motorbike was caught in a power line, police said.

Seven people died and three were injured when a landslide buried their house in Nueva Vizcaya Province in Luzon, Kristine Falcon of the provincial disaster agency told AFP.

Power outages across the island province of Catanduanes could last for months after Man-yi toppled electricity poles, provincial information officer Camille Gianan told AFP.

"Catanduanes has been heavily damaged by that typhoon — we need food packs, hygiene kits and construction materials," Gianan said.

"Most houses with light materials were flattened while some houses made of concrete had their roofs, doors and windows destroyed."

In the coastal town of Baler in Aurora Province, cleanup operations were underway to remove felled trees and debris blocking roads and waterways.

"Most of the houses here are made of light materials so even now, before the inspection, we are expecting heavy damage on many houses in town," disaster officer Neil Rojo said.

"We've also received reports of roofs that went flying with the wind last night ... it was the fierce wind that got us scared, not exactly the heavy rains."

Agencies via Xinhua