A powerful typhoon has wrecked houses, caused towering tidal surges and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee to emergency shelters as it barreled across the northern Philippines in the sixth

A super typhoon barreled toward the Philippines’ largest island on Sunday, as more than half a million people sought shelter from the latest in a string of powerful storms to threaten the country.

The sixth tropical cyclone to hit the Philippines in a month intensified with maximum sustained winds reaching 121 mph.