Typhoon tears through north Philippines

MANILA, Philippines -- Typhoon Yinxing battered the northern Philippines with floods and landslides before blowing away from the country on Friday, leaving two airports damaged and aggravating a calamity caused by back-to-back storms that hit in recent weeks.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from Yinxing, the 13th major storm to hit the disaster-prone Southeast Asian archipelago this year.

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

The typhoon flooded villages, toppled trees and electricity poles and damaged houses and buildings in Cagayan province, where Yinxing made landfall Thursday afternoon, provincial officials said. More than 40,000 villagers were evacuated to safer ground in the province.

In the northernmost island province of Batanes, Gov. Marilou Cayco said Yinxing's fierce winds and rain blew away roofs of houses and damaged seaports and two domestic airport terminals.

A picture of former One Direction singer Liam Payne adorns a memorial outside the hotel where he was found dead after falling from a balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)