At least six people were confirmed dead Monday as the Philippines were hit by the season's strongest typhoon yet, while Cuba and the southern United States were also on alert as the tropical cyclone season progresses.
Typhoon Noru battered the Philippines' most populous island with heavy rain and fierce winds as it toppled trees, knocked out power and flooded low-lying communities across Luzon on Sunday and Monday.
There have so far been no reports of widespread severe damage from the storm, which hit the country as a super typhoon.
"We were ready for all of this," President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told a briefing with disaster agencies.
"You might think that we overdid it. There is no such thing as overkill when it comes to disasters."
Five rescuers were killed after they were sent to help flooded residents in San Miguel municipality in Bulacan province, near the capital Manila.
"They were deployed by the provincial government to a flooded area," said Lieutenant-Colonel Romualdo Andres, chief of police in San Miguel.
Andres said the rescuers were wading through floodwaters when a wall beside them collapsed, sending them into the fast current.
An elderly man died after he was hit by a landslide in Burdeos municipality on the Polillo islands, part of Quezon province, where the storm made landfall, said Garner Jimenez from the local civil defense office.
The Philippines is regularly ravaged by storms, with scientists warning they are becoming more powerful as the world gets warmer because of climate change.
Noru smashed into the archipelago nation on Sunday after an unprecedented "explosive intensification" in wind speeds, the state weather forecaster said earlier.
It made landfall about 100 kilometers (62 miles) northeast of the densely populated capital Manila, before weakening to a typhoon as it crossed a mountain range, coconut plantations and rice fields.
Nearly 75,000 people were evacuated from their homes before the storm hit, as the meteorology agency warned heavy rain could cause "serious flooding" in vulnerable areas, trigger landslides and destroy crops.
But on Monday there was no sign of the widespread devastation many had feared, as the storm moved over the South China Sea towards Vietnam.
Aerial footage taken during Marcos's inspection flight over central Luzon showed rivers that were swollen or had burst their banks and patches of farmland under water.
Parts of eastern Canada suffered "immense" devastation, officials said Sunday after powerful storm Fiona swept houses into the sea and caused major power outages, as the Caribbean and Florida braced for intensifying Tropical Storm Ian.
Canadian authorities have now confirmed two deaths caused when Fiona, then a post-tropical cyclone, tore into Nova Scotia and Newfoundland early Saturday.
Fiona had earlier claimed seven lives as it roared through the Caribbean at the start of a week of havoc.
Officials on Prince Edward Island on Sunday confirmed the death of one person there, though there were few details.
And officials have found the body of a 73-year-old woman believed to have been swept from her home in Newfoundland. She apparently was sheltering in her basement when waves broke through.
The storm packed intense winds of 130 kph when it arrived with force rarely seen in eastern Canada, bringing torrential rain and waves of up to 12 meters (40 feet).
More than 300,000 people were still without electricity across five provinces Sunday after the storm felled trees, ripped roofs from buildings and damaged power lines, officials said. Hundreds of utility crews were working to restore power.
Further south, parts of the Caribbean, as well as the U.S. state of Florida, were preparing for Tropical Storm Ian, which the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said is forecast to become a hurricane on Monday and a major hurricane the following day.
Packing winds of near 60 miles per hour and getting stronger, the storm is expected to pass near the Cayman Islands, either near or over western Cuba, and then head toward Florida, the NHC said.
A hurricane warning is in effect for parts of Cuba – where the storm is forecast to "produce significant wind and storm surge" – as well as the British territory of Grand Cayman, according to the NHC.
Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis said Saturday that he had declared a state-wide emergency in preparation for the storm, warning on Twitter that "Floridians should take precautions."
Authorities in several Florida municipalities including Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa began distributing free sandbags to residents to help them protect their homes from the risk of flooding.
"It's never too early to prepare," tweeted Jane Castor, the mayor of Tampa.
