Winds, rain lash Philippines as super typhoon nears

MANILA — Typhoon Fung-wong, a storm with a radius spanning nearly the entirety of the Philippines, reached super typhoon status on Sunday ahead of an expected late-night landfall. Catanduanes, a small island the state weather service said could take a “direct hit”, was already being lashed by wind and rain in the early morning, with storm surges sending waves hurtling over streets along the coast. The typhoon, which comes just days after another ravaged the country, was working its way westward with winds of 185 kilometres (115 miles) per hour near the centre and gusts of up to 230 kph, the state weather service said. “The waves started roaring around 7 am (2300 GMT Saturday). When the waves hit the seawall, it felt like the ground was shaking,” Edson Casarino, 33, a resident of Catanduanes’ Virac town told AFP. “Heavy rain is pouring now, and I can hear the wind whistling.” On Saturday, some residents of the island were tying down their houses and putting weights on their roofs. “They decided to do our tradition of strapping down the roofs with big ropes and anchoring them on the ground

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