Thousands of people have started to evacuate from the Philippines' coastal areas on Thursday as the strongest typhoon to hit the country this year bore down on its main island.
Typhoon Mangkhut with winds of more than 205 km per hour is forecast to make landfall early on Saturday on the northern tip of Luzon island.
"What's happening now is pre-emptive evacuation in certain areas," said Manuel Mamba, governor of the northeastern province of Cagayan, where schools and offices were closed and police, military and coastguard told to be ready.
A worker recovers net in a fish pen before Super Typhoon Mangkhut hits the main island of Luzon, the Philippines on September 13, 2018. /VCG Photo
Mangkhut, with a diameter of about 900 km and gusts of up to 255 kph (158.5 mph), is drawing comparisons with Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated central areas of the archipelago nation in 2013, killing 6,300 people.
Medical and emergency response teams were on standby, heavy equipment mobilized and more than 1.7 billion pesos (31.45 million US dollars) of relief goods prepared as the super typhoon edged toward the storm-prone nation on its way toward southern China and northern Vietnam.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and defense, interior and energy chiefs were given a briefing on emergency plans for a storm that could impact 4.3 million people, more than 800,000 of whom live in poverty.
"I worry especially for houses made of light materials," said Marilou Cayco, the governor of Batanes, a chain of seven remote islands 240 km (149 miles) off the mainland where she said up to 3,000 families could be "battered."
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte visits the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) Operations Center in Manila on September 13, 2018. /VCG Photo
Mangkhut has gathered strength since it struck the US Pacific territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana islands overnight on Monday before it heads toward the Philippines, which on average sees 20 tropical storms a year.
"We are not just looking at floods. It could generate a storm surge upon landfall," said Vicente Malano, administrator of Philippine weather agency PAGASA.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Observatory said the typhoon "will pose considerable threat" to China's southern coastal province of Guangdong with more than 100 million people.
(Cover: Rescuers ready their gear before Super Typhoon Mangkhut hits the main island of Luzon, the Philippines on September 13, 2018. /VCG Photo)