The danger of heavy rains causing more flooding in Manila, the capital, was enough to force families to flee their homes in low-lying areas. Farther north thousands were evacuated. Nearly half a million people in total are now thought to have fled their homes because of typhoons.
But the worst affected area on Saturday was the coast in the north of Luzon, the biggest island in the archipelago, which was ravaged by winds in excess of 110 miles an hour.
Trees were uprooted, electricity poles snapped, and homes and bridges destroyed by the force of the typhoon before it moved inland.
Tuguegarao City, capital of Cagayan Province, bore the brunt of typhoon Parma's fury, with 1.2 metres of rain in six hours. There were early reports of four deaths. That figure was expected to rise.
Troops were on standby in Manila to cope with expected flooding. Sewers were still blocked with mud and reservoirs were full after last week's heavy rains.
Philippine National Red Cross administrator in Cagayan, Aileen Torres, said: "Many areas around the city have been hard hit and we can not get out to see if people are safe because the roads are blocked by fallen trees.
"It's pretty chaotic at the moment with the wind howling outside and sheets of tin being torn off roofs."
Chito Castro, head of the Office of Civil Defense in Cagayan Valley, said the typhoon was blowing "very, very strong winds" across the province.
In Vietnam, across the South China Sea, the death toll rose to 107 from Typhoon Ketsana on Saturday, one of the deadliest typhoons to hit the nation in recent years.
The cost of damage was estimated at nearly £370 million. When the typhoon tore across the Philippines last weekend it killed at least 293 people. It also claimed 17 lives in Cambodia and 24 in Laos, neighbours of Vietnam.
All along the eastern seaboard of Luzon the army, police and volunteers forced thousands of people to move over the past three days ahead of the typhoon's landfall. But almost as soon as it struck land Parma turned and moved up the coast, before sweeping in across the northern province of Cagayan, a sparsely populated rural area.
It had been feared that the typhoon would make landfall farther south. The capital is still reeling for a tropical storm that poured a month's worth of rain on the city in just six hours flooding 80 percent of land area of the metropolis of 12 million people.
The clean-up in Manila has been painfully slow although international relief aid has poured in from overseas. Fearing a repeat of last weekend's disaster the president, Gloria Arroyo, declared a nationwide state of calamity. She began ordering local governments in the path of Typhoon Parma to force people out of their homes if they refuse to move.
Officials said the risk of another major disaster eased after Parma changed direction.
Weather forecaster Nathaniel Cruz said: "We all breathed a sigh of relief when the typhoon changed direction. But it still brought strong winds and rain over much of Cagayan before blowing further inland towards the mountains. It was a strong typhoon, packing winds at its height of 110 miles an hour," Mr Cruz said.
Dr Susan Espinueva, assistant weather services chief of the Hydro Metrological Division of the weather bureau, said five major dams in Luzon remain open and are releasing water to increase storage capacity in anticipation of the typhoon.
More than 400,000 people still remain in evacuation centres in areas hit hard by last weekend's floods.
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