Millions of people in the Philippines were Wednesday bracing for a ferocious tropical storm that had already claimed 14 lives and submerged vast tracts of land in more remote parts of the country.

Nock-ten was expected to hit the heavily populated central section of the main Luzon island at 1:00pm (0500 GMT), then dump heavy rain there for about a day before blowing out into the South China Sea, the state weather service said.

The storm hit the coastal provinces of Albay and Camarines Sur on southern Luzon on Tuesday, forcing 645,000 people to flee their flooded homes, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council chief Benito Ramos told AFP.

"Those two provinces are underwater," he said.

The government is waiting for the skies to clear and the seas to calm down before sending emergency supplies by air and water to those provinces, according to Ramos.

"We can't use the army trucks because the roads are flooded," he said.

The council said dozens of flights had been cancelled because of the storm.

Ramos said 14 people had been confirmed killed so far, with most of the fatalities in the coastal regions.

More than eight million people live across the central plains of Luzon, where Nock-ten is forecast to strike on Wednesday.

Manila, the sprawling capital of more than 12 million people lies about 100 kilometres (60 miles) to the south of Nock-ten's direct path, and schools were closed across the city on Wednesday as it prepared for heavy rains.

An average of 20 storms and typhoons, some of them deadly, hit the Philippines every year. Storms killed 48 people on Luzon in May and June.

Unusually heavy rains also killed 42 people last month in the country's south, an area that is normally spared typhoons and storms.

earlier related report
Nine die, thousands flee as storm hits Philippines
Manila (AFP) July 26, 2011 - Nine people were killed and 25 went missing as a tropical storm struck the Philippines, causing floods and landslides that forced tens of thousands to flee their homes, officials said Tuesday.

Tropical storm Nock-ten brought unusually heavy rains to the Pacific coast as the cyclone hovered over the southern section of the main island of Luzon on Tuesday afternoon, the state weather service said.

The government's civil defence administrator Benito Ramos estimated some half a million people lived in the hardest-hit areas, with one local official putting the number of people who fled their homes in the tens of thousands.

"The entire (province of) Albay is affected and reporting massive floods, landslides, and homes destroyed," Ramos told reporters.

Bernardo Alejandro, the top civil defence official of the region, said evacuations were ongoing but that they did not have the exact figures.

"Many areas are isolated by floods and so we could not send people out to help them," Alejandro added.

Albay provincial governor Joey Salceda had earlier put the number of evacuees in his province at 70,000 people.

Landslides, toppled trees and power lines as well as floods killed seven people in the largely-rural province, Salceda told reporters.

One person died swimming across a swollen river and another was fatally electrocuted by a fallen power line on Catanduanes island, off Albay, said Ramos' office, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

At least 25 fishermen went missing while seven others were rescued at sea after big waves stirred up by Nock-ten struck their mainly small boats, it added.

Classes were called off in Manila and nearby provinces and about 20 local flights were cancelled, the council said.

The storm, packing slightly reduced 75 kilometres (46.6 miles) per hour winds, hovered off the Bicol peninsula on Luzon's southern tip at 4:00pm (0800 GMT), state weather specialist Robert Sawi told a news conference.

Nock-ten should be over the South China Sea early Thursday after raking across the centre of Luzon just north of Manila on Wednesday, he added.

Some 199 millimetres (7.8 inches) of rain fell over Catanduanes, and 118 millimetres over Albay, in six hours, Sawi said.

Rainfall of more than 45 millimetres over a six-hour period is considered heavy, he added.

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