Typhoon Phanfone brought a wet and miserable holiday for Philippines as it pummelled through the country on Christmas eve.
More than 25,000 were stranded at shuttered ports or evacuation centres on Wednesday, and residents cowered in rain-soaked homes as Phanfone leapt from one small island to another for the second day. No deaths have been reported but the typhoon toppled several trees, houses and blacked-out cities.
Authorities sent out a call to residents in flood and landslide-prone areas to evacuate their homes.
Ailyn Metran, who spent the night at a local state weather service office where her husband worked, with her four-year-old child said a metal window frame flew off and fell onto a car parked outside the building.
With just two hours' sleep, the family returned to their home in the central city of Tacloban early Wednesday to find their two dogs safe, but the floor was covered in mud and a felled tree rested atop a nearby house.
With ferries shut, thousands of people remain stranded at ports on Christmas Day, the coast guard said. And while the populous capital of Manila situated on the northern edge has so far been spared, several flights in and out of the region have been cancelled.
The Philippines is the first major landmass facing the Pacific cyclone belt.
