Typhoon Koppu hits Philippines leaving two dead and 16,000 people displaced

Slow-moving Typhoon Koppu has weakened after blowing ashore with fierce winds in the north-eastern Philippines, leaving at least two people dead, displacing 16,000 villagers and knocking out power in entire provinces.

Army troops and police were deployed to rescue residents trapped in flooded villages in the hard-hit provinces of Aurora, where the typhoon made landfall early on Sunday, and Nueva Ecija, a nearby rice-growing province where floodwaters swamped rice farmlands at harvest time.
After slamming into Aurora's Casiguran town after midnight on Saturday, the typhoon weakened and slowed down, hemmed in by the Sierra Madre mountain range and a high pressure area in the country's north and another typhoon far out in the Pacific in the east, government forecaster Gladys Saludes said.
Howling winds knocked down trees and electric posts, leaving nine entire provinces without power, while floods and small landslides made 25 roads and bridges impassable. Authorities suspended dozens of flights and sea voyages due to the stormy weather, and many cities cancelled classes on Monday.