Thousands of people were evacuated in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Man-yi brought destructive winds and rains to the South Asian nation struggling to recover from a series of powerful storms this month.

Packing winds of 185kph, the Category 5 storm was heading for the eastern part of the main and largest island of Luzon, spurring the weather agency to raise its second-highest alert for the provinces of Catanduanes and Camarines Sur.

Dozens of flights in the eastern Visayas region facing the Pacific Ocean were cancelled over the weekend due to the storm, which is forecast to hit land around the island province of Catanduanes on Saturday night or early Sunday.

Nearly 180,000 people in the central region of Bicol have been evacuated, data from the disaster agency showed. Man-yi, locally known as Pepito, would be the sixth tropical cyclone to hit the Philippines in a month.

“Pepito is approaching its peak intensity,” the weather agency said. “Potentially catastrophic and life-threatening situation looms for northeastern Bicol region as Super Typhoon Pepito further intensifies,” the forecaster said, according to CNA.

The weather agency also warned of dangerous storm surges that could exceed 14m in coastal areas of Luzon.

While Man-Yi was expected to weaken as it moved over the island, the storm would probably stay a typhoon until it reaches the South China Sea, according to the weather agency.

The federal government has urged people to heed warnings and not “wait for the hour of peril before evacuating or seeking help” adding “because if we did that we will be putting in danger not only our lives but also those of our rescuers”, interior undersecretary Marlo Iringan said.

“I think our house will be wrecked when we get back because it’s made of light materials – just two gusts are required to knock it down,” Legazpi City grocer Myrna Perea, who was sheltering with her husband and three children at a school, told AFP news agency.

“That’s why we evacuated. Even if the house is destroyed, the important thing is we do not lose a family member.”

About 20 tropical storms strike the Philippines each year on average, bringing heavy rain, strong winds and deadly landslides. In October, floods and landslides brought by tropical storm Trami and typhoon Kong-rey killed 162 people with 22 missing, government figures show.

In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest recorded tropical cyclones, left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, flattened entire villages and caused ships to run aground and smash into houses in the central Philippines.