Typhoon Sarika smashed into the main island of Luzon in Philippines, today, ripping off roofs, toppling power lines and forcing more than 12,000 people to flee to safer places.
The disaster agency said, 290 commercial flights, including 63 to international destinations, were cancelled due to bad weather.
The Philippine islands are often the first major landmass to be hit by storms that generate over the Pacific Ocean. The Southeast Asian archipelago endures about 20 major storms each year, many of them deadly.