Over 700 thousand people flee homes in the Philippines in preparation for a Typhoon

Almost 725,000 people fled their homes as they prepared for heavy rain and coastal floods of up to 4 meters (13 feet) as Typhoon Melor slammed Monday into the eastern Philippines, officials said.

Any entity entering or leaving the country was suspended.

The government’s weather bureau stated the typhoon was packing winds of 150 kilometers (95 miles) per hour with gusts of up to 185 kph (115 mph), and heavy to intense rain within its 300-kilometer (185-mile) diameter. It made landfall Monday morning.

The largest numbers of evacuees were in Sorsogon and Albay provinces.

An estimate of 20 storms and typhoons hit the Philippines each year. In November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest typhoon on record to make landfall, left more than 7,300 fatalities as it leveled entire villages and swept walls of seawater into parts of the central Philippines.