SUPER TYPHOON MAKES LANDFALL IN PHILIPPINES

Typhoon Goni, expected to be the strongest storm to hit the Philippines this year, made landfall this morning, with weather officials predicting “catastrophic wind damage” as it roared through the country.

The warning came as emergency response teams backed by the Philippine police and military scrambled to prepare. Winds were expected to be particularly strong in Catanduanes province and other areas, Pagasa, the national weather agency, said in a tweet it posted this morning.

The center of the eye of Goni made landfall as a super typhoon at 4:50 a.m. in Catanduanes, an island province, Pagasa said.

The typhoon had sustained winds of 135 mph at its center and gusts of 165 mph as of early today, prompting the Joint Typhoon Warning Center to categorize the storm as a super typhoon.

The eye of the storm — which Philippine officials are calling Typhoon Rolly under their separate naming system — was expected to pass near Metro Manila, the low-lying capital region and home to more than 24 million people.

The storm is expected to weaken slightly before making landfall again today in the southern part of Luzon, the country’s most populated island, Philippine officials said.

“We are forecasting widespread destruction,” Ricardo Jalad, the chief of the government’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said Saturday.

Goni will be the 18th typhoon to strike the Philippines this year. It is arriving just days after Typhoon Molave, which was weaker, tore across the country, dumping heavy rains and causing significant flooding. Molave killed 22 people and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands before moving on to Vietnam, where it caused deadly landslides.

PHILIPPINE COAST GUARD VIA AP Members of the Philippine Coast Guard carry a child during evacuations Saturday as they prepare for Typhoon Goni.