odies were recovered, Noel Rosal, mayor of Legazpi city, capital of badly hit Albay province, said Friday.

Elsewhere in Albay, 26 people were killed in Santo Domingo and 13 were missing, while another nine deaths were reported in the town of Daraga, said Jukes Nunez of the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council.

Rosal said about 30 people were injured by boulders and roofing materials in Padang and taken to hospitals.

The storm tore through the eastern Philippines earlier on Thursday with winds of up to 139 mph, blowing away small houses, uprooting trees and cutting off power to thousands of homes, officials said.

‘We should not be complacent’

Durian lashed the eastern island province of Catanduanes, but later veered south to likely to spare the bustling capital of Manila. Even so, forecasters warned relieved residents to brace for potentially destructive winds.

“We should not be complacent, metro Manila, please,” chief forecaster Nathaniel Cruz told ABS-CBN television.

In Catanduanes, about 230 miles east of Manila, authorities ordered the evacuation of coastal areas. Some Catanduanes residents described the winds as being so strong that it felt like an earthquake, Manila Radio DZBB reported.

In nearby Naga city, officials said they received reports of small houses being blown away.

Rescuers struggled against strong winds to rescue residents whose roofs were torn off, exposing them to rain and flying sheets of metal, Naga Mayor Jessie Robredo told The Associated Press by cell phone. With telephone lines down, many residents whose houses were uprooted by the wind sought help by sending cell phone text messages.

“I’ve received SMS messages of 10 small houses being blown away by the wind, and many others getting damaged,” Robredo said.

1,500 evacuated

About 1,500 residents were evacuated to emergency shelters ahead of the typhoon in Naga, about 167 miles southeast of Manila, mostly mountain dwellers fearing possible landslides, he said.

The Office of Civil Defense in Manila said 120 people evacuated their homes in Catanduanes as did more than 800 in Albay province’s capital, Legazpi city, where widespread flooding was reported.

The “super typhoon” — the fourth to hit the Philippines in as many months — was packing sustained winds of 121 mph and gusts of up to 139 mph, the weather bureau said.

The civil defense office said electricity was cut off to thousands of people in Bicol and 10 towns in nearby Quezon province, while nearly 4,000 ferry passengers were stranded after the coast guard grounded all vessels.

In late September, Typhoon Xangsane left 230 people dead and missing in and around Manila. Typhoon Cimaron killed 19 people and injured 58 others last month, and earlier this month Chebi sliced through the central Luzon region, killing one.

About 20 typhoons and tropical storms hit the Philippines each year.