On the main road running through Tuguegarao City, branches and sheets of metal litter the ground. Trees are tangled around road signs, toppled roofs of petrol stations hang precariously and nearby, the city’s damaged airport remains closed.

Tuguegarao, home to more than 140,000 people, was directly hit by Typhoon Mangkhut, which made landfall in the province of Cagayan on Saturday morning at 1.40am, packing winds of up to 165mph.

The typhoon has left a trail of damage across the nation’s bread basket in the northern Philippines.

As the clean-up began on Sunday, residents were counting the cost of hours of typhoon winds. The storm killed at least 40 people, but the toll is expected to rise as rescue teams reach rural areas still cut off by flooding. The typhoon also laid waste to homes, flooded large swathes of countryside and devastated rice fields.

At a press briefing in the city on Sunday, Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines president, said he shared the grief of those who had lost loved ones in the typhoon and he was satisfied with the government’s response.

On Sunday, Tuguegarao was without electricity and residents were relying on generators. Most spent the peak of the storm inside makeshift shelters or at home, hoping for the best. One resident said she shut herself in her shop until the storm had passed. “I was scared, it was the sound of the wind that scared me, and then I heard a loud crash. It was that tree,” she said, pointing to a tree opposite spearing a sheet of corrugated metal. “Thank God we weren’t hurt.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A fallen tree pierces corrugated iron. Photograph: Lynzy Billing/Guardian

The threat from the typhoon is far from over. The Philippine Red Cross said waters were rising in parts of Tuguegarao and some roads were still flooded.

The city was placed under a “state of calamity” by the local government, with reports claiming the storm had caused 51 landslides across the region.

The roads winding north to the city from Santiago were strewn with fallen trees and electricity poles, and the corn and rice fields were drowning in flood water.

Many farmers had rushed to save their crops before the typhoon hit. George Desatel did not have the people to help and said he had lost 70% of his rice to Mangkhut. He was harvesting the remaining crop with help from members of the community.

A petrol pump attendant said: “We have had no electricity here since 8pm on 14 September, before the typhoon hit. It could take weeks or months to fix. This puts me out of work.

“And we are already struggling with funds for food. Maybe the government will help. The problem is with a food shortage, prices will rise.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest George Desatel salvages his remaining crops. Photograph: Lynzy Billing/Guardian

Jerry Serrano lost the roof to his house to the typhoon. He also lost two acres of corn. “Completely wiped out,” he said. He does not work and is concerned where he will get the money to fix his roof. Eight people live in his two-bedroom house. “For me, this is severe,” he said. “I have lost my shelter and my protection for my family.”

His daughter Maria said: “Who knows if the government will help, for now we will have to stay with neighbours, and hope money to fix the roof comes, but the people most affected by the typhoon are the farmers, they have lost everything.”

The country director for the German Red Cross said thousands of houses had been damaged and the number of casualties was still rising: “The impact of Typhoon Ompong [the local name for Mangkhut] is tremendous, not only short term, as most of those communities rely on rice and corn farming as their primary source of livelihood.

“Crops are significantly affected, and the farmers will have to take loans to cope with their loss. Humanitarian needs are high.”