Typhoon kills at least 109

MANILA, Philippines – Typhoon Durian tore through the eastern Philippines on Thursday with winds of up to 139 mph, killing at least 109 people and cutting off power to thousands of homes, officials said. Dozens of people were missing.

With power and phone lines downed by powerful winds, helicopters were carrying out aerial surveillance of cut off areas.

Fernando Gonzales, governor of badly hit Albay province, said 108 bodies had been found but that recovery operations were continuing. At least one person was killed in adjacent Camarines Sur province, which reported that its capital was flattened.

Undersecretary Graciano Yumul of the Department of Science and Technology said the storm was particularly damaging because wind gusts hit 165 mph when Durian came ashore Thursday in Catanduanes, an island province with no mountains to break the storm’s momentum.