China evacuates 400,000
A man walks along a road amid heavy rain due to weather patterns from Super Typhoon Ragasa in Lal-lo town, Cagayan province, Philippines. Photo: AFP
The Chinese city of Shenzhen was preparing Monday to evacuate 400,000 people while residents of the northern Philippines sought shelter from gale-force winds as Super Typhoon Ragasa headed on a collision course with southern China.
The typhoon made landfall on the Philippines' Calayan Island, part of the sparsely populated Babuyan chain, at 3:00 pm (0700 GMT), according to the Philippine weather service.
As of 8:00 pm (1200 GMT), the storm was generating maximum sustained winds of 215 kilometres per hour (134 mph) near its centre and gusts of up to 265 kph, the national weather service said.
"I woke up because of the strong wind. It was hitting the windows, and it sounded like a machine that was switched on," said Tirso Tugagao, a resident of Aparri, a coastal town in northern Cagayan province.
On Calayan Island, at the storm's centre, information officer Herbert Singun told AFP that chunks of a school roof had been ripped off and landed on an evacuation centre about 30 metres (yards) away, causing one minor injury.
"Can you see those coconut trees swaying in the distance?" he asked during a video chat. "There were eight of them before. Now only four are still standing. That goes to show how strong this typhoon is."
Just over 10,000 Filipinos were evacuated across the country, with schools and government offices closed Monday in the Manila region and across 29 other provinces.