Slow-moving Typhoon Koppu has weakened after blowing ashore with fierce winds in the north-eastern Philippines yesterday, leaving at least two people dead and six others missing, while displacing 16,000 villagers.

Army troops and police were deployed to rescue residents trapped in flooded villages in the hard-hit provinces of Aurora, where the typhoon blew ashore, and Nueva Ecija, a nearby rice-growing province where floodwaters swamped farmlands at harvest time. After slamming into Aurora’s Casiguran town early yesterday, the typhoon weakened and slowed considerably, 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.

A woman, living along the coast of Manila Bay puts herself in danger as she searches for salvageable items after her house was damaged by strong winds brought by typhoon Koppu in the northeastern Philippines, yesterday. Photo: Reuters

Howling winds knocked down trees and electricity pylons, 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 for today.

By the afternoon, the typhoon had veered toward the north from its westward course and was tracked over mountainous Nueva Vizcaya province with sustained winds of 93 miles per hour and gusts of up to 115mph, according to the government’s weather agency.

Satellite images show that the typhoon appeared to be losing its eye, a sign of its dissipating strength, acting weather bureau chief Esperanza Cayanan told reporters. While weather had begun to improve in some towns, and villagers had started to clear roads of fallen trees and debris, Koppu was still packing a ferocity that could set off landslides and flash floods, officials said.

A teenager was pinned to death by a fallen tree, which also injured four people and damaged three houses in suburban Quezon city in the Manila metropolis. In Subic town, north west of Manila, a concrete wall collapsed and killed a 62-year-old woman and injured her husband.

A man was electrocuted in northern Tarlac province and two bodies were seen being swept by floodwaters in Nueva Ecija, but authorities were trying to determine whether those were typhoon-related deaths.