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Typhoon flooded villages and damaged 2 airports in the Philippines
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Typhoon flooded villages and damaged 2 airports in the Philippines

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MANILA, Philippines — Typhoon Yinxing battered the northern Philippines with floods and landslides before flying out of the country on Friday, damaging two airports and worsening the disaster caused by back-to-back storms in recent weeks.

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No casualties were reported from Yinxing, the 13th major storm to hit the disaster-prone Southeast Asian archipelago this year.

The typhoon, locally called Marce, last tracked over the South China Sea about 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of the northern Philippine province of Ilocos Norte, with sustained winds of up to 150 kilometers (93 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 100,000 gusts. 205 km/h (127 mph), according to government forecasters. It is expected to weaken further before hitting Vietnam.

Provincial officials said the typhoon flooded villages, toppled trees and power poles and damaged homes and buildings in Cagayan province, where Yinxing made landfall Thursday afternoon. More than 40,000 villagers in the province were evacuated to safer locations.

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In the northernmost island state of Batanes, Governor Marilou Cayco said high winds and rain in Yinxing blew off the roofs of houses and damaged ports and two domestic airport terminals.

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More details on the damage are expected after assessments are completed in provinces hit by the typhoon, including two northern mountain towns hit by landslides, officials said.

The new damage will complicate recovery efforts after two powerful storms have ravaged the northern region in recent weeks.

Tropical Storm Trami and Typhoon Kong-rey killed at least 151 people in the Philippines and affected nearly 9 million people, mostly in the northern and central provinces. More than 14 billion pesos ($241 million) in damage was caused to rice, corn and other crops, as well as infrastructure.

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Trami dumped one to two months’ worth of rain in just 24 hours in some areas. At least 61 people died in floods and landslides in the hardest-hit province of Batangas, south of Manila.

As of Thursday, more than 630,000 people had been displaced by Trami and Kong-rey, officials said; 172,000 people remained in emergency shelters, including Yinxing in the country’s mountainous north.

Communications Minister Cesar Chavez said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has decided not to attend next week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru to focus on recovery efforts.

Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest tropical cyclones on record in 2013, left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, destroyed entire villages, and caused ships to run aground and homes to crash in the central Philippines. The archipelago is also located in an area frequently hit by earthquakes and has more than a dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world.

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