Typhoon Kills 12 in Philippines, Heads to Southern China

Sagud-Bahley, San Fabian in Pangasinan after Typhoon Mangkhut, known locally as Ompong, hit the Philippines, in this still image taken from a September 15, 2018 video from the Philippine Red Cross.

"We're anxious for the 10 million people in the Philippines living in the path of this destructive storm, including those who have been displaced several times due to the monsoon rains last July and August", Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippines Red Cross, said in a statement.

Presidential Communications Operation Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar said that Duterte is just waiting for the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) so that he can fly to the affected areas.

Officials said other northern provinces had started evacuating residents from high-risk areas, including in northern mountain provinces prone to landslides.

Mangkhut struck Cagayan province in the northern Philippines on Saturday with winds of up to 269km an hour, leaving at least eight dead and sending about 206,000 people to shelters, according to data from various agencies.

The South China Morning Post on Wednesday reported that the system could turn out to be stronger than any of the 15 typhoons that have been given Hong Kong's highest warning signal and looked set to be one of the strongest to ever hit Southeast Asia.

The Philippines is evacuating thousands of people, deploying soldiers and positioning emergency provisions as Super Typhoon Mangkhut threatens more than four million people in the north of the country.

Winds of 127 miles per hour were measured on Friday alongside gusts of up to 158 mph, forecasters said, and it could get even stronger. Mangkhut is now a Cat 5 Typhoon packing winds of 285 kmph.

Tape fixed to window panes during preparations ahead of Super Typhoon Mangkhut's arrival at Causeway Bay Hong Kong, China, on Saturday.

The bodies of the two women in the Philippines were pulled from the soil of a hillside that collapsed after the storm's torrential rains, Philippine police said.

In Cagayan's capital, Tuguegarao, where the typhoon hit land, Associated Press journalists saw a severely damaged public market, its roof ripped apart and wooden stalls and tarpaulin canopies in disarray.

Mangkhut weakened slightly as it reached Luzon's mountainous coastline early Saturday morning; however, it was still packing winds equivalent to a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. It was not clear if the three dead included the rescue workers.

Many residents have begun preparing for the storm by reinforcing their homes and buying food and supplies in bulk.

"This was the strongest and the worst storm that I've ever experienced in my life", Teresita Antonio, 54, told The New York Times in Claveria, a corn- and rice-growing area on Luzon's northern coast.

Typhoon Mangkhut has wreaked damage across the Philippines' main island of Luzon, reportedly killing 14 people.

The Hong Kong government said Mangkhut will pose "a severe threat to the region". It's estimated that the tropical cyclone put at least five million people at risk.

Cathay Pacific said all of its flights would be cancelled between 2:30 a.m. local time on Sunday and 4 a.m. Monday. Hainan Airlines canceled 234 flights in the cities of Haikou, Sanya, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai scheduled this weekend.