At least 20 people are dead and nine others are missing as a powerful tropical storm makes its way across the Philippines' main island of Luzon Wednesday.

Tropical Storm Nock-ten made landfall with intense rains and maximum winds of 95 kilometers an hour. Wind gusts ranged up to 120 kilometers an hour.

Benito Ramos, the head of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, told reporters more than 640,000 people have been affected by Nock-ten, most of them in the coastal province of Albay.

Dozens of domestic flights have been canceled, while schools in Manila were closed as a precaution.

The storm is expected to move into the South China Sea later Wednesday.

Nock-ten, a Laotian word for bird, is the tenth storm to strike the Pacific nation this year. The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms every year.