(CNN)Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in the Philippines as Typhoon Kammuri hit Luzon, the country’s largest and most populous island.
Kammuri made landfall near the city of Gubat on Monday evening local time and has continued to strengthen. The storm has clocked maximum sustained winds near 215 kilometers per hour (130 mph), according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, making it a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.
The eye of the typhoon, known locally as Tisoy, was set to move directly over Legazpi City in the next few hours, bringing damaging winds and torrential rainfall, which could lead to devastating mudslides. The typhoon will track across the Central Philippines and southern Luzon over the next 24 hours before emerging into the South China Sea early Wednesday morning.
