At least three people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee their homes as Typhoon Kalmaegi ripped through the central Philippines, the country's disaster agency reported.
Typhoon Kalmaegi has flooded large areas, including entire towns on the island of Cebu.
Videos show people sheltering on rooftops as cars and shipping containers are swept through the streets.
A military helicopter deployed to assist relief efforts crashed in northern Mindanao island, according to the Philippine Air Force (PAF). It remains unclear if there were any survivors from the crash.
The typhoon, locally named Tino, has weakened since making landfall early on Tuesday but continues to bring winds of over 80 mph (130 km/h).
It is forecast to move across the Visayas islands region and out over the South China Sea by Wednesday.
The provincial governor of Cebu, Pamela Baricuatro, called the situation “unprecedented,” noting that while dangerous winds were anticipated, the floodwaters posed a greater threat.
“The floodwaters are just devastating,” she stated.
Don del Rosario, a 28-year-old resident of Cebu City, sought refuge on an upper floor of a building and declared it was the worst flooding he has experienced in his 28 years of living there.
In a statement, the PAF mentioned that a rescue helicopter went down near Agusan del Sur on Mindanao island, stating that communication with the helicopter was lost, which prompted a search and rescue operation.
Almost 400,000 people have been evacuated from the path of the typhoon, according to Rafaelito Alejandro, deputy administrator at the Office of Civil Defence.
The Philippines experiences an average of 20 storms and typhoons annually, with the latest calamity striking just a month after back-to-back typhoons killed over a dozen and caused significant infrastructural damage.
In the weeks leading up to the storm, an unusually wet monsoon season resulted in widespread flooding, sparking protests over inadequate flood control systems perceived to be linked to corruption.
On September 30, a powerful 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck the central Philippines, notably affecting Cebu and complicating recovery from subsequent disasters.
