Super typhoon hits Philippines

Super Typhoon Mangkhut smashed through the Philippines yesterday, as the biggest storm to hit the region this year claimed the lives of its first victims and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes.

Roughly four million people -- a quarter of whom live on a few dollars a day -- were in the path of destruction that the storm slashed through the northern tip of Luzon island, leaving at least eight dead.

"As we go forward, this number will go higher," Ricardo Jalad, head of the national civil defence office, told reporters, referring to the death toll.

In US, Tropical Storm Florence trudged inland yesterday, flooding rivers and towns, toppling trees and cutting power to nearly a million homes and businesses as it dumped huge amounts of rain on North and South Carolina, where five people have died.

As Mangkhut left the Southeast Asian archipelago and barrelled towards densely populated Hong Kong and southern China, Philippine authorities began sending search teams to remote areas hit by communication and power outages.

The extent of the storm's destruction was only beginning to be known, with reports of dozens of rain-soaked hillsides collapsing, torrents of out-of-control floodwaters and people being rescued from inundated homes.

More than 105,000 people fled their homes in the largely rural agricultural region, which is one of the nation's top producers of corn and rice.

Mangkhut was packing sustained winds of 160 kilometres (105 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 195 km per hour as it hurtled across the sea towards China's heavily populated southern coast.

An average of 20 typhoons and storms lash the Philippines each year, killing hundreds of people and leaving millions in near-perpetual poverty.

The dead were six people killed in landslides, a girl who drowned and a security guard crushed by a falling wall. In addition to the eight killed in the Philippines, a woman was swept out to sea in Taiwan.

The country's deadliest storm on record is Super Typhoon Haiyan, which left more than 7,350 people dead or missing across the central Philippines in November 2013.

Philippine government forecaster Ariel Rojas said even though the storm had passed the Philippines, it would continue to bring heavy rain in the country possibly causing more floods and landslides until Monday.

The Hong Kong government said Mangkhut will pose "a severe threat to the region", with many residents in the city and neighbouring Macau stocking up on food and supplies.

Florence diminished from hurricane strength as it came ashore on Friday, but forecasters said the 350-mile-wide storm's (560 km) slow progress across the two states could leave much of the region under water in the coming days.

The National Hurricane Center said the storm would dump as much as 30 to 40 inches (76-102 cm) of rain on the southeastern coast of North Carolina and part of northeastern South Carolina, as well as up to 10 inches (25 cm) in southwestern Virginia.

At 8:00am EDT (1200 GMT), the hurricane center said Florence had maximum sustained winds near 50 miles per hour (80 km per hour) and continued to produce catastrophic flooding in the Carolinas. It said it was located about 35 miles (55 km) west of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and forecasters predicted a slow westward march.

About 10 million people could be affected by the storm.