A category 3 typhoon with winds of 140 kph (85 mph), Megi was about 980 km (610 miles) east of northern Luzon and moving at 20 kph west northwest toward northern Cagayan province, said Nathaniel Servando, a weather bureau official.
“So far, this would be the strongest typhoon to hit the country this year,” Servando said, although he added there could be much stronger storms in coming months.
Last year, the country lost 1.3 million tons of paddy rice following three strong typhoons in September and October, prompting it to go to the market early to boost its rice stocks.
Megi was expected to develop into a category 4 typhoon on Saturday evening, Servando said, packing maximum winds of up to 200 kph and dumping rains as heavy as typhoon Ketsana, which inundated 80 percent of Manila in 2009.
Known locally as Juan, the typhoon was expected to reach northern Luzon on Monday afternoon and head out to the South China Sea on Tuesday, moving toward Hainan and northern Vietnam.
The storm is not expected to hit the capital hard unless it changes direction unexpectedly. Weather forecasters said Megi would be felt in northern Luzon, where rice and corn are important crops, by Sunday afternoon.
Benito Ramos, head of the national disaster agency, said the government could order an evacuation in areas where Megi was expected to cause landslides, storm surges and flash floods in low-lying areas in the north’s rice-and-corn areas.
Emergency workers, including soldiers, police and firemen, were on stand-by for rescue and relief operations, he said.
In July, typhoon Conson killed 102 people. It unexpectedly changed direction and sliced through Manila, cutting power across the sprawling metropolis of 12 million people, prompting President Benigno Aquino to sack the chief weather forecaster.
Conson, locally called Basyang, destroyed or damaged about 377 million pesos ($9 million) worth of infrastructure and crops, including 86,000 metric tons of rice, corn and vegetables.
Typhoon Ketsana, known locally as Ondoy, dumped record rain in Sept 2009 on the capital region and nearby areas, killing 277 people, making tens of thousands homeless and causing more than $100 million of damage to crops, infrastructure and property.
