The strongest typhoon to menace the Philippines in recent years was on track to slam ashore today in the northeast, where thousands of villagers fled to safety amid massive emergency preparations.
Millions of residents and rice farmers along the typhoon's path were warned of pounding rains and fierce wind that could significantly damage agriculture, homes, power and communications.

Typhoon Megi packed sustained winds of 140 miles per hour and gusts of 162 mph but could strengthen still before making landfall in Isabela province by midday.
With its ferocious wind, Megi has become the strongest typhoon to threaten the country in four years, government forecasters say. A 2006 howler with 155-mph winds set off volcanic mudslides that buried entire villages, killing about 1,000 people.
An angry President Benigno Aquino III fired the head of the weather bureau in July for failing to predict that a typhoon would hit Manila. More than 100 people were killed in Manila and outlying provinces by that storm.