MANILA -- Government forecasters said they are watching a low pressure area over the Pacific Ocean just as Typhoon Santi, which killed at least 14 people in Luzon, roared toward Vietnam Sunday.

Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) reported that the low pressure area was estimated at 610 kilometers east of Luzon as of Sunday evening, but it was too early to tell if it will develop into yet another storm.

For updates from around the country, follow Sun.Star on Twitter

The Philippines is still recovering from the effects of Typhoon Ondoy (international codename: Ketsana), which brought Manila its worst flooding in 40 years and went on to kill more than 160 people in Vietnam in late September.

Ondoy and two later storms -- typhoons Pepeng and Ramil -- killed more than 900 in the Philippines. Some 87,000 people who fled the storms were still living in temporary shelters when Typhoon Santi (international codename: Mirinae) struck Friday night.

As of Sunday evening, Santi continued to weaken as it headed over the South China Sea. It was expected to strike Vietnam’s central coast around noon Monday, prompting Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to order residents to begin evacuating high-risk areas of five coastal provinces and for Vietnamese fishermen in the South China Sea to seek shelter immediately.

The latest typhoon left at least 14 people dead, mostly from drowning, in six provinces in Luzon, disaster officials said. Four people were injured and four others remained missing as of Sunday evening.

According to the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), seven of the fatalities were from Camarines Norte, while there were four deaths reported in Laguna province.

Other deaths were reported in the provinces of Catanduanes, Quezon and Cavite, said NDCC executive officer and Office of Civil Defense (OCD) administrator Glenn Rabonza.

Rabonza said that eight of the fatalities died of drowning, three succumbed to hypothermia, two due to collapsed wall, and one fell from the roof.

Two of the four missing are from Batangas, while the two others are from Laguna and Quezon. The injured were from Catanduanes, Camarines, Batangas City, and Laguna.

Rabonza added that a total 2,853 families or 13,456 persons were affected, of which 1,976 families or 9,290 persons are housed in 32 evacuation centers.

He pegged the initial damage to barangay halls, day care centers, health centers and a foot bridge in Labo, Camarines Norte alone at P15.6 million. Also damaged were 5,564 houses throughout Southern Tagalog, Bicol Region and in Central Luzon.

Malacañang, however, said the damage caused by Santi is lesser than the one brought by Typhoon Ondoy last September, this year.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said that early preparation against Santi has helped minimize the damage and even loss of lives during the typhoon's onslaught.

He said they are grateful for those who cooperated and prepared for the worse possible impact of Santi.

Prior to the landfall of Santi on Friday night, Arroyo ordered the early prepositioning of relief goods and rescue equipment along with the preventive evacuation in areas in the path of the typhoon.

As of 4 a.m. Sunday, the center of Santi was located at 450 kilometers west southwest of Metro Manila and is expected to move west 22 kilometers per hour (kph). It has sustained winds of 85 kph near the center and gustiness of 100 kph.

It is expected to be at 970 west southwest of Metro Manila by Monday morning.

The storm did not keep the largely Roman Catholic country from paying respects to the dead on All Saints’ Day on Sunday. Huge crowds jammed cemeteries, with some people visiting still-flooded ones by boat.

In Rizal province, just east of Manila, villagers carrying flowers and candles paddled canoes into a rural cemetery that resembled a lake.

Joel Librilla thrust his hands into the waist-high waters to feel the letters on submerged tombstones in a search for his mother's grave.

"We don't know where to light our candles," Librilla told the Associated Press Television News. "But my mother should know that this is for her." (JMR/VR/MSN/AP/Sunnex)