Philippines digs out from Typhoon Fung-wong as death toll rises - VIDEO
Rescuers with backhoes and chainsaws began clearing the debris in the Philippines on Tuesday after Typhoon Fung-wong, as floodwaters receded from hundreds of villages and the death toll from the storm rose to 25.
Fung-wong, which displaced 1.4 million people, had weakened into a severe tropical storm even as it began dumping rain on neighbouring Taiwan ahead of an expected Wednesday landfall, News.Az reports citing foreign media.
It was the second major typhoon to hit the Philippines in days, after Typhoon Kalmaegi last week rampaged through the archipelago's central islands on its way to killing 232 people, according to the latest figures.
In coastal Isabela province, a town of 6,000 remained cut off from help on Tuesday, a civil defence spokesman told AFP, with parts of neighbouring Nueva Vizcaya province similarly isolated.
"We are struggling to access these areas," said Cagayan Valley region spokesman Alvin Ayson, who added that landslides had prevented rescuers from reaching affected residents.
Others were "now in evacuation centres, but when they get back to their homes, their rebuilding will take time and face challenges", he said.
A 10-year-old boy had been killed by one of the landslides in Nueva Vizcaya, the spokesman added.
The child was among 25 deaths recorded in an updated toll released Tuesday by national civil defence deputy administrator Rafaelito Alejandro, who said many of those killed had died in landslides.
Nineteen of the deaths were recorded in the country's Cordillera mountain range.
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