(Adds boat capsizing) MANILA, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Typhoon Utor swept out of the Philippines killing four people, including three children, and stranding thousands on Monday after high winds and waves tore up power lines and communication links in the archipelago. Utor, currently a category 1 typhoon with gusts of around 140 kph (93 mph), was forecast to weaken to a tropical storm by Friday on a path that peters out south of the Chinese island of Hainan by the weekend, according to www.tropicalstormrisk.com. The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) said three children were confirmed dead, including a one-year-old girl whose house was struck by a falling tree in central Capiz province. Four were listed as missing. Around 50 passengers were rescued when their boat capsized in stormy waters off Batangas province about 120 kilometres (75 miles) south of Manila. They piled onto the vessel despite the bad weather after being stranded on Mindoro Island for two days. "We were irked at some of the foreigners. They tried to save their baggage first," one passenger, Sheryl Nartates, told a local radio station after three coast guard boats picked all the passengers up. On the resort island of Boracay, the famous white sands were littered with debris after high winds tore up roofs and trees. "Some people are crying because they are afraid and in shock," said Roselle Gallano, a waitress at a coffee shop close to the beach front. "Many houses were damaged, some have been tilted." The governor of nearby Aklan province said one person had been killed on Boracay and at least four were still missing. BEREAVED Authorities evacuated around 90,000 residents, most of them in Albay province, where more than 1,000 people are feared dead after Typhoon Durian wiped out villages in a torrent of landslides and flash flooding in late November.Utor, the fifth typhoon to hit the Philippines since September, did not directly hit Albay but the bereaved remain stranded in schools and makeshift shelters and the province is still without power. On Friday, the Philippines hastily postponed an annual summit of 16 Asian leaders until January, citing concerns the typhoon could wreak havoc at the venue on the central island of Cebu. Utor subsequently swept north of Cebu. The NDCC said over 500 houses were destroyed and electricity was knocked out in wide areas in the Visayas region. Storms regularly hit the Philippines. In one of the worst disasters in recent years, more than 5,000 people died on the central island of Leyte in 1991 in floods triggered by a typhoon. (Additional reporting by Karen Lema and Dolly Aglay in Manila)
