400,000 evacuated, 3 dead as fresh storm after Super Typhoon Ragasa batters Philippines

The Philippines evacuated hundreds of thousands of people and confirmed at least three deaths Friday as a severe tropical storm battered the country, still feeling the effects of Super Typhoon Ragasa.

Civil defence officials in southern Luzon's Bicol region said three people had been killed as walls collapsed and trees were uprooted by Severe Tropical Storm Bualoi, which is sweeping west by northwest at sustained speeds of 110 kilometres per hour.

Evacuees in one province took cover under pews as the roof of a church where they were sheltering was ripped by the storm.

"Around 4am, the wind destroyed the door, the windows and the ceiling of the church," Jerome Martinez, a municipal engineer in southern Luzon island's Masbate province, told AFP.

"Thats's one of the strongest winds I've ever experienced," he said, adding some children had suffered minor injuries requiring stitches.

"I think more people will have to evacuate still because many houses were destroyed and many roofs were blown away. They are now blocking the streets and roads."

Around 400,000 people have been evacuated, Bernardo Alejandro, a civil defence official, said at a Friday press briefing.

"We are clearing many big trees and toppled electric posts because many roads are impassable," Frandell Anthony Abellera, a rescuer in Bicol's Masbate City, told AFP by phone.

"The rain was strong, but the wind was stronger."

Videos shared on social media and verified by AFP showed people using boats or trudging through waist-deep water to navigate flooded streets further south in the central Philippines' Visayas islands.

Public anger

The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, putting millions of people in disaster-prone areas in a state of constant poverty.

Scientists warn that storms are becoming more powerful as the world warms due to the effects of human-driven climate change.

Authorities warned Thursday of a "high risk of life-threatening storm surge" of up to three meters (10 feet) with the coming storm.

Thousands also remain displaced in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Ragasa, which passed over the country's far northern end and killed at least nine people earlier in the week.

The storms come as public anger seethes over a scandal involving bogus flood-control projects believed to have cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

Taiwan rescuers look for missing

Rescue workers in Taiwan battled through thick mud on Friday, looking for 11 people still missing after Super Typhoon Ragasa this week sent a wall of water into a small town on the east coast.

The flooding's death toll held steady at 14.

The heavy rains in Hualien county caused a so-called barrier lake in the mountains to overflow on Tuesday and release a thick sludge of water and mud on the town of Guangfu.

While the flood waters have receded, the dark grey mud continues to blanket large parts of the area, creating problems for residents and rescuers alike.

Rescue workers, sometimes wading in mud up to their waists, have been cutting holes in the roofs of buildings to check for missing people.

A man who gave his family name as Hwang said he was still looking for his elder sister's body.

"She died in the house because it was completely filled with mud and there was no way to get her out," he said.

Many of the deaths occurred on the first floors of houses after people, often elderly, were unable to follow government orders to move upstairs and out of the way.

Huang Ju-hsing, 88, has been trapped inside his second-floor home after the flooding blocked access to his family-run grocery store downstairs.

"There was no time to escape. We told him to hurry up and go upstairs," said his wife Chang Hsueh-mei, who has been able to scramble over the wreckage downstairs and get outside.

"When you're faced with an emergency, you suddenly find the courage to do anything," said Chang, 78, after climbing through aisles of fallen objects to reach her husband.

Mountainous, sparsely populated and largely rural, Hualien is one of Taiwan's top tourist destinations due to its wild beauty.

What to do about the barrier lake, formed by earlier typhoons and which has now shrunk in size to only 12% of what it was before the disaster, remains an unresolved issue.

Barrier lakes are formed when rocks, landslides or other natural blockages make a dam across a river, normally in a valley, blocking and holding back water, hindering or even stopping natural drainage.

The government has ruled out using explosives to break through the bank holding up the water, fearing it could bring more landslides and worsen the situation.

The disaster has not impacted Taiwan's crucial semiconductor industry, located on the island's west coast.