Typhoon barrels toward Philippines

HAGATNA, Guam: A typhoon that killed four people and destroyed hundreds of homes on islands in the western Pacific has weakened but is expected to cause flooding in the Philippines this weekend.
Typhoon Maysak was downgraded from a supertyphoon Thursday morning. Paul Stanko, senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Guam, said the storm still is packing power as it barrels toward northern Luzon island in the Philippines.
He expects “buckets of rain” that could create flooding when the storm hits Sunday morning.
Officials said it left a path of destruction in Micronesia, killing four people, destroying 830 homes and displacing 6,760 residents in Chuuk state.
Frank Cholymay, the state’s disaster coordinator, says falling trees caused some of the deaths, and a flying piece of wood fatally struck a child. Residents of Micronesia have appealed for help.
“We can do with all the help we can get,” Courtney Stinnett at the Truk Stop Hotel dive shop on the main island of Weno in Chuuk state told AFP.
A state of emergency has been declared in Chuuk, the largest region of Micronesia. “The storm ripped the iron roofs off houses. About 95 percent of the homes were damaged,” Stinnett said, adding that residents were gathering scattered sheets of iron to hastily make their wrecked homes rainproof.