See our latest coverage on Typhoon Mangkhut here.

Typhoon Mangkhut struck the Philippines early Saturday after thousands of people evacuated their homes to dodge the 550-mile wide storm as it roared across the Pacific with maximum sustained winds of 120 miles per hour.

The ferocity of the typhoon in some ways eclipsed Hurricane Florence on the other side of the world, pummeling the Mid-Atlantic Coast of the United States with life-threatening rains.

The eye of Mangkhut, known as Ompong in the Philippines, made landfall on the northern island of Luzon, the country’s rice and corn growing heartland, where more than four million people are at risk, early Saturday around 1:40 a.m.