Thousands of people in the Philippines have been evacuated ahead of landfall by another big typhoon.

At least 66 have died, 26 others are missing, and hundreds of thousands are displaced after rains driven by Typhoon Kalmaegi flooded swathes of the central Philippines, according to the Philippines National Disaster Agency on Tuesday, but it’s feared that the numbers will increase.

The Philippine military confirmed that a Super Huey helicopter, one of four deployed to assist typhoon relief efforts, had crashed on Monday in the northern Mindanao island while en route to the coastal city of Butuan, and that the remains of six people had been recovered by troops.

The weather service predicted it would strike Leyte Island, around 500km south-east of the capital Manila, bringing 120-kilometre per hour winds and gusts of up to 150 kph. Officials estimate more than 2 million are in its path.

The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, routinely striking disaster-prone areas where millions live in poverty.

The country’s suffered a spate of unusually heavy storms and flooding in recent months. They’ve fuelled popular anger about corruption involving government anti-flooding projects.