Typhoon Cimaron headed Tuesday toward Vietnam after cutting a trail of destruction through the main Philippines island of Luzon, leaving 10 people dead and 12 missing, civil defense officials said. More than 2,200 people were still in evacuation centers in several provinces due to flooding and fear of landslides.
Two people were killed by landslides in the northern province of Benguet while seven drowned and another was killed by a falling tree, officials said.
Unconfirmed reports put the death toll at 15.
Power remains out in parts of northern Luzon after powerlines were brought down, the civil defense office said, adding that damage to infrastructure and agriculture had been estimated at about 340 million pesos (6.8 million dollars).
Cimaron, packing winds of up to 230 kilometers (143 miles) per hour and torrential rain, slammed into the eastern coast of the northern Philippines late Sunday and moved across the island on Monday.
The weather bureau said Cimaron was now charting a course across the South China Sea toward the eastern coast of Vietnam but had weakened, with gusts of up to 150 kilometres per hour.
Officials have expressed relief that there were far fewer deaths this time than earlier this month, when Typhoon Xangsane pounded northern Luzon, killing more than 200 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.
Source: Agence France-Presse
