The most powerful typhoon in a decade ripped through the Philippines on Friday, churning up floodwaters that killed at least 65 people, destroying thousands of houses and cutting electricity to a third of the country.
Billboards crashed to the ground, and 125-mph winds tore roofs from houses. To keep from being blown away, television reporters on Friday lashed themselves to lampposts as they broadcast from Manila Bay.After whipping up 140-mph winds along the eastern coast of the Philippines' largest island, Luzon, on Thursday, Typhoon Angela weakened only slightly before hitting the capital, Manila, on Friday.
One of the billboards it toppled crushed eight buses and two trucks at a garage in suburban Par-an-aque.
By Saturday morning, roads littered with debris were being cleared, and linemen were trying to restore electricity to a wide area around Manila.
The typhoon, the strongest in a decade, swept Friday across 25 provinces on the main island of Luzon, including Manila, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said.
The disaster council said 437,760 people were affected, including more than 280,000 who were forced to flee to government shelters after their homes were submerged in floodwaters or destroyed by the howler.
In Manila, local officials said the more than 16,000 people forced to flee were returning to their homes Saturday as floodwaters receded.
The disaster council also said damage to agriculture was initially estimated at about $25.7 million. Infrastructural damage was about $20.6 million.
The agency's early Saturday report said 62 people were killed, 50 of them from the Bicol region on the southeastern leg of Luzon, where the typhoon landed.