Ms Cayanan said the typhoon was expected to curve north and eventually move out to sea.
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“There are still no reports of casualty, thank God”, said Alexander Pama, executive director of National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
It’s Koppu’s slow pace, as much as its winds, which could result in much higher destruction and casualties: the typhoon is expected to bear down over northern Luzon until midweek, the agency said.
A child cries inside a temporary shelter with his mother under their boat that was put up in baywalk due to Typhoon Koppu in Manila.
Typhoon Koppu, known locally as Lando, arrived early Sunday hitting the island of Luzon with winds of over 250 kilometers per hour (155 mph) that forecasters advised could last until Tuesday.
Most houses made of straw, which are occupied by the poorest farmers, would be destroyed or lose their roofs, the agency said.
Koppu is the 12th storm to hit the Philippines this year.
Vicente Malano, acting Pagasa administrator, said Metro Manila would not come under a higher storm warning signal.
In November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most ferocious storms on record to hit land, barreled through the central Philippines, leveling entire towns and leaving more than 7,300 dead or missing.
“It may be semi-stationary once it hits”, Ms Cayanan told reporters.
Radio stations said trees were down and power was cut in the area.
He said ferry services across the island, home to about half the Asian archipelago’s population of 100 million people, were suspended amid rough seas while commercial aviation was also disrupted with 30 flights suspended, two of them on worldwide routes.
The slow-moving typhoon made landfall near the town of Casiguran on the main island of Luzon on Sunday morning. “So instead it will linger in place, gradually decreasing in intensity, but continuing to dump rain over the next 120 hours”.
The storm could be uniquely destructive because of the length of time it will hover over the disaster-prone country, which has experienced more than 15 typhoons this year alone.
The storm’s rapid intensification was hinted at in weather forecasts from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) in the US and the Japan Meteorological Authority, but JTWC forecasters had predicted it would peak at slightly lower intensity, with a few forecasts showing the storm coming ashore as a Category 3 storm.
On Friday President Benigno Aquino warned people living in the path of Typhoon Koppu to be ready to evacuate.
It is slow moving, meaning it could bring intense rain over a long period of time.
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Metropolitan Manila, the sprawling Philippine capital with 12 million inhabitants, about 90 miles southwest of Aurora, will be spared from the brunt of the typhoon but it is expected to be drenched with intense rain, forecaster Adzar Aurelio said.
