A powerful typhoon has slammed into the North-eastern Philippines and is barrelling across the main Luzon island toward the capital, in a densely populated path where thousands have been evacuated to safety.
The coastal town of Burdeos on Polillo Island in Quezon province was hit by a typhoon noru shortly before nightfall.
It was expected to weaken slightly when it hits the Sierra Madre mountain range, but will remain dangerously ferocious with sustained winds of 195 kilometres per hour and gusts of up to 240 kph, forecasters said.
Marilen Yubatan said the typhoon is strong and we live by the sea. She left her shanty in Manila with her two young daughters.
Vicente Malano, who heads the country's weather agency, said that the Typhoon gained considerable strength from a storm with sustained winds of 85 kph on Saturday into a super typhoon just 24 hours later in an explosive intensification over the open ocean.
On Sunday, authorities began evacuating thousands of people from coastal areas of Luzon, where the capital, Manila, is located.
The mayor of Dingalan town, also on Luzon, said DZMM radio station communication lines were severed and power was out in some communities.
Coastal communities could be hit by tidal surges as high as 3 metres in Quezon province, including Polillo Island and nearby Aurora province.
The waves whipped up by the Category 3 typhoon battered the islands' main port and low-lying areas flooded, Angelique Bosque, the mayor of the Polillo Islands, told DZRH radio station.
In Manila's seaside slum district of Tondo, some residents left their homes with bags of belongings and hurriedly walked to a nearby evacuation centre as the sky darkened and rain started to fall.
Melchor Avenilla JrAvenilla Jr, who heads Quezon's disaster response office, said that law enforcers were under orders to forcibly move people who refuse to leave their homes.
But so far we've been able to do this by just appealing to people, according to Mr Avenilla, who spoke to the Associated Press by phone.
President Ferdinand Marcos declared the suspension of government work and classes in Luzon for Monday and said that the energy ministry had put on high alert all energy related facilities in typhoon-affected areas.
The weather agency said that the eye of the typhoon could pass about 40 to 50 km from metropolitan Manila, which is nearly a direct hit, but the weather agency said it was nearly a direct hit.
The coast guard said that the fishing boats and inter-island and cargo ferries were restricted to port as a precaution, stranding cargo trucks and more than 2,500 passengers.
More than 30 flights at Manila's airport, mostly bound for domestic destinations, were cancelled.
The Philippine Stock Exchange said on Monday that trading would be suspended because heavy to torrential rains drench the capital region and nearby provinces.
The typhoon is expected to sweep through the main Luzon Island overnight and into the South China Sea on Monday. It's on track to hit Vietnam later in the week, still maintaining its powerful winds.
In 2013, the Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest recorded tropical cyclones in the world, left more than 7,300 dead or missing, flattened entire villages, swept ships inland and displaced more than 5 million in the central Philippines - well to the south of Noru's path.