The head of the country’s weather service, Nathaniel Cruz, said the storm made landfall about 7 p.m. near Bolinao, one of Pangasnian province’s westernmost towns.

He said that Chan-Hom would lose significant strength as it moved inland and over the mountainous terrain of interior Luzon. But the storm was also expected to produce torrential rainfall and storm-force winds, that could unleash flash flooding and mudslides.

Maximum sustained winds near the center of Chan-Hom when it made landfall were near 85 mph (140 km/h), according to estimates by the U.S. military’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center. Meteorologists at the center predicted the storm would move off Luzon’s eastern coast and into the Philippine Sea by late Friday.

Manila-based Philodrill Corp. said it was forced to halt operations at the Galoc offshore oil field, located off Palawan Island southwest of Manila, due to Chan-Hom’s high winds and rough seas.

Even though the center of the typhoon passed well to the north of the oil fields, operators shut down the facilities to avoid any possible storm-related damage. Oil production there reached 1 million barrels in March, equivalent to around 3,225 barrels per day.

Less than a week earlier, Typhoon Kujira produced torrential rainfall and unleashed mudslides that killed at least 27 people in the country’s eastern province of Sorsogon.

Typhoon Chan-Hom Track

Satellite Loop Data: CIMSS