The weather office said Chanthu had maximum winds of 205 km/h because it made landfall over Batanes province, 678 km north of Manila.
He added that it was moving northwest at a speed of 15 km/h and was expected to go through Batanes into the ocean east of Taiwan on Saturday evening.
The country’s disaster agency said 415 people were forced to evacuate in nearby Cagayan and Isabela provinces after warnings of landslides attributable to rain and flash floods.
Taiwan’s Central Meteorological Bureau said the storm, which at one point was considered an excellent typhoon, was losing strength because it headed toward the Bashi Channel separating Taiwan from the Philippines.
Chanthu is forecast to circle Taiwan’s sparsely populated and mountainous eastern coast on Saturday evening before heading to China’s Zhejiang province and Shanghai.
Chanthu ravaged the northern Philippines just days after Typhoon Conson, which left 14 people dead and 7 missing. The country’s disaster agency said greater than 100,000 people were affected within the eastern and central Philippines.
The Philippine archipelago is hit by a median of 20 tropical cyclones yearly.
The strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines was Typhoon Haiyan, which in November 2013 killed over 6,300 people and displaced over 4 million.
There is a slim probability of a typhoon warning in Hong Kong because the double storm moves away
There is a slim probability of a typhoon warning in Hong Kong because the double storm moves away
Local media reported that Conson can be the fifth storm to hit Vietnam this 12 months and will affect as many as 800,000 people in northern provinces and cause landslides.
Tens of hundreds of people that needed to be moved to safer places were living in coronavirus isolation and needed to follow health protocols.
The government ordered affected provinces to ban ships from going to sea and prepare evacuation plans for residents of low-lying areas.
Due to its long coastline, Vietnam is prone to devastating storms and floods. Natural disasters – mainly floods and landslides attributable to storms – killed 378 people within the country last 12 months.
The weather agency said there will likely be six to eight more typhoons or tropical depressions within the South China Sea this 12 months
This article appeared within the print edition of the South China Morning Post as: Hundreds of individuals were evacuated after a typhoon hit the Philippines
