MANILA – A powerful storm hit the northern Philippines on Wednesday, killing at least one person, toppling trees, knocking out power and dumping heavy rain as thousands sheltered with neighbours or in emergency evacuation centres.

Typhoon Doksuri was packing maximum sustained wind speeds of 175kmh as it hovered over waters around Fuga Island, off the northern tip of the main island of Luzon, the state weather agency said in its latest update at 8am Singapore time.

The agency warned of “violent, life-threatening conditions” as severe winds and heavy rain pounded the lightly populated region.

A woman selling bread rolls died when she was hit by a falling coconut tree in Ramon municipality in the northern province of Isabela on Wednesday, provincial disaster official Constante Foronda said.

The storm was a super typhoon as it swept across the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, but weakened as it neared the Philippines.

“The wind and rain were so strong overnight I could not sleep well,” Mr Rey Aguinaldo, a retired government official in the coastal municipality of Pasuquin in Ilocos Norte province, told AFP.

“When I got up today, I saw fallen trees and broken branches outside. We have no electricity.”

About 12,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Cagayan province, including 431 in the Babuyan Islands, following warnings of 3m-high storm surges, provincial disaster official Ruelie Rapsing told AFP.

Fuga is one of five islands that make up the tiny Babuyan archipelago.

Flooding has been reported in the coastal municipalities of Lallo, Pamplona and Claveria.

Mr Rapsing said some people sheltered with neighbours who had concrete houses, while others were taken to municipal halls.

“The roof of the Sanchez Mira municipal hall (in Cagayan) was blown off,” he said.

“The windows of an evacuation centre there also broke so we had to move (the people) to multi-purpose halls back in their villages.”

The typhoon is expected to maintain its strength as it continues towards Taiwan and the Chinese mainland.

China’s weather agency has raised its storm alert to the second-highest tier, and the manufacturing hub of Guangdong province has warned of the worst typhoon in a decade.

Doksuri is expected to make landfall in China on Friday, the second typhoon to land in under two weeks after Talim slammed into Guangdong on July 17.

The storm’s outer rain bands were expected to hit southern Taiwan later on Wednesday.

The Taiwanese authorities issued warnings for several counties and cities in the south, including the major port city of Kaohsiung.

More than 300 people were evacuated in southern and eastern Taiwan as a precaution.

Nearly 50 domestic flights, four international flights and many ferry services were cancelled, while railway services between eastern and southern Taiwan would be suspended from Wednesday evening.

Ferry services to the Taiwanese-governed islands of Kinmen and Matsu from the Chinese mainland were all halted.

Some train services linking densely populated cities such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hangzhou along China’s southern and eastern coasts were suspended. AFP, REUTERS