Flooding from typhoon kills at least 16 people

Typhoon Parma caused widespread flooding and landslides that buried at least two families in the Philippines, then hung threateningly off the coast Sunday drenching the country’s north as well as Taiwan.

At least 16 people died when Parma hit the main island of Luzon on Saturday, though the capital, Manila — still awash in floodwaters from a storm barely a week earlier — was spared a new disaster.

In Benguet province, a family of five, including a 1-year-old boy, died when their home was buried in a landslide, local police Senior Superintendent Loreto Espineli told The Associated Press. Seven people, including another family of five, were buried in a nearby village, he said.

Four also died in other provinces, most of them drowning after being swept away by floodwaters, officials said.

Parma headed northwest into the South China Sea after passing over the Philippines, but its movement slowed to about 6 mph and hooked back toward the country as it began to interact with Typhoon Melor, a storm over the north Pacific Ocean that is pushing west, said chief government forecaster Nathaniel Cruz.