Filipinos in Bermuda were yesterday locked in a desperate bid to contact their families in the typhoon-battered country.

Bermudian Evelou Mosley, originally from the Philippines, said yesterday she and her husband Daryn were booked to fly to the Philippines on Monday.

Ms Mosley added she had followed the storm's progress and had been unable to contact her family in the Pacific island nation.

She said: “We haven't been able to get through since last night. Of course, we are worried.”

Ms Mosley was speaking after the typhoon hit the northern part of the country yesterday afternoon packing 130mph winds with higher gusts as well as torrential rain.

She said she had worked with charity Answering the Cry of the Poor to build shelters in Cagayan, an area of Luzon, the main island in the chain, which is expected to be hit hard by Super Typhoon Mangkhut, called Ompong in the Philippines.

Ms Mosley explained: “The direction the storm is travelling will put it right over Cagayan, right where we are building a shelter for the poorest of the poor.

“We have already started work on that project, and we are really hoping that what we have already built won't be destroyed by the typhoon. My husband and I are supposed to be flying there, but we don't know if the airport will be okay.”

Ms Mosley said she was concerned, but that the country had learnt from previous storms and was well prepared.

She said: “The last major one was in 2016 and some of the people then seemed to ignore it.

“A lot of people's homes were damaged because they were not prepared. They didn't realise that it was going to come so quickly. This time we have heard that everyone was prepared. All of the officials were trying to warn the people and get them to the evacuation areas.”

Thousands of people were moved from coastal communities as officials warned of a potential 20ft storm surge. The Philippine Government raised alert levels to the second-highest, signal four, in Cagayan, northern Isabela, Apayao and Abra provinces.