A typhoon left at least 12 people dead, knocked out power in many areas, damaged a parked plane but spared the Philippine capital on Wednesday when its fierce wind shifted, officials said.
Still, Typhoon Rammasun's 150-kilometre wind and blinding 185-kp/h gusts, brought down trees, electric posts and ripped off roofs across the capital of 12 million people where government offices and schools were closed. More than 370,000 people moved from high-risk villages to emergency shelters in six provinces.
It was the strongest storm to make landfall in the Philippines this year. The second-highest alert in a four-scale warning system is still in effect for 10 areas including metro Manila. Government offices and schools in the capital and all areas under at least a Signal 2 - the third-highest alert - were closed, except for agencies involved in vital services and disaster response. There was no trading and settlement in the currency and bond markets and the Philippine Stock Exchange was shut.
The storm is now moving away from the Philippines at 25 kp/h towards Vietnam.
In a shantytown at the edge of Manila Bay, hundreds fled when strong wind tore tin roofs off their shanties. Most were drenched by the rain before they reached an evacuation centre with the help of firemen and rescue personnel, according to The Associated Press.
Bloomberg News reported that Manila Electric Co said power was cut to almost 90% of its customers in the capital and nearby provinces, where about a fourth of the nation's 107 million people live. Strong winds toppled power poles and brought down transmission lines, the company said on its Facebook page, without giving an estimate on when supply may be restored. Eleven provinces are still without electricity, the disaster agency's Pama said.
As many as 6,000 people are stranded in ports, with at least 11 roads and one bridge outside Manila impassable, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said. About 230 international and local flights were canceled, Pama said.
A Singapore Airlines Ltd plane came into contact with an aerobridge at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila as strong winds moved the aircraft, the company said by e-mail. There were no passengers or crew on board, and engineers will assess the jet once the storm eases, it said. The typhoon grounded a ferry in Batangas province and a cargo vessel in Cavite, the Radyo Inquirer reported, citing Coast Guard spokesman Commander Armand Balilo, adding that no one was hurt.
Strong winds also damaged part of an external wall at one of Ayala Land Inc.'s malls in the Makati financial district, the company said in an e-mail, with no injuries, Bloomberg reported.
Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada told The Associated Press he was relieved there were no reported deaths after the typhoon sideswiped his city although its wind still downed trees and damaged seaside shanties, prompting more than 1,000 residents to evacuate.
"It was like a drill," he said. "We hauled people away from dangerous seaside areas, whether they liked it or not."
The German Press Agency reported a death toll of 11.
Elsewhere, a woman died after being hit by a fallen electric post in Northern Samar province and two men, including one travelling on a motorcycle, were separately pinned to death by falling trees in two other provinces. Three members of a family were killed when a wall collapsed on them in Lucena city, southeast of Manila and an 11-month-old boy died after being hit by a wall in a house in Cavite province near the capital, officials reported to the AP.
Three fishermen have been reported missing in Catanduanes, near Albay province, where Rammasun made landfall late Tuesday.
There were no immediate estimates of the damage in communities that lost power and telephone connections while being pummelled by the wind and rain.
With last year's massive devastation and deaths from Typhoon Haiyan still in many people's mind, officials said 373,000 people readily evacuated after being told of the danger, the AP reported.
Polangui mayor Cherilie Mella Sampal said 10,000 of the 80,000 residents in her town in Albay, about 340 kilometres southeast of Manila, were evacuated before the typhoon struck Tuesday. Ms Sampal said she saw the wind topple electric posts and lift roofs off houses.
Ms Sampal said residents were worried after witnessing Haiyan's horrific aftermath in the central Philippines last November.
"We're used to and prepared for calamities,'' Ms Sampal told The Associated Press by phone. "But when people heard that the eye of the typhoon will hit the province, they feared we may end up like the victims of (Yaiyan)," she said.
Haiyan's strong winds and tsunami-like storm surges flattened towns, leaving at least 6,300 people dead and more than 1,000 missing.
Rammasun, the Thai term for god of thunder, is the seventh storm to batter the Philippines this year. About 20 typhoons and storm lash the archipelago on the western edge of the Pacific each year, making it one of the world's most disaster-prone countries.