A resident stands with his rescued sow and suckling piglets as people wade through a flooded highway in Santa Rosa town, Nueva Ecija province, north of Manila on Monday, a day after Typhoon Koppu hit Aurora province. Residents of flooded farming villages in the Philippines were trapped on their rooftops on Monday and animals floated down fast-rising rivers, as the death toll from Typhoon Koppu climbed to 16 and forced more than 60,000 people from their homes. The Philippines is hit with about 20 major storms a year. The most powerful storm ever recorded on land, Super Typhoon Haiyan, hit the Philippines in 2013, killing or leaving missing at least 7,350 people.

Residents sit on the roof of their submerged house after Typhoon Koppu hit the town of Santa Rosa on Monday. Military, government and volunteer rescue units equipped with rubber boats were trying to help residents in dozens of flooded villages.

Fire volunteers and workers clear a fallen tree in Manila on Monday, after high winds from Typhoon Koppu toppled it on Sunday, crushing a house and killing Ronel Castillo, a 14-year-old boy, and injuring four other people.

Residents help each other as they use a rope to cross a flood current in Santa Rosa town on Monday. Koppu has so far claimed relatively few lives, partly because the typhoon directly passed through sparsely populated mountain and coastal ranges. Photos: AFP