CABANATUAN CITY , Philippines ( CNN ) -- Typhoon Parma crossed the northern tip of the already storm-battered Philippines Saturday afternoon and early Sunday , killing three people , according to local media . A NASA satellite image shows Typhoon Parma as it headed toward the Philippines on Friday . Parma made landfall Saturday afternoon in a rural region of fishermen and farmers in Luzon , the largest of the Philippine islands . Tens of thousands of people to fled their homes for safer shelter . Winds whipped the coastline and felled power lines in northernmost Cagayan Province . Debris littered the roads , making evacuations even more difficult . At 5 a.m. Sunday ( 5 p.m. Saturday ET ) , Parma , known locally as Typhoon Pepeng , had maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometers per hour ( 75 mph ) with gusts as high as 148 kilometers ( 92 mph ) as the eye began to leave land , heading to the northeast , according to the U.S. Navy 's Joint Typhoon Warning Center . Parma avoided a direct hit on heavily populated Manila , but the real menace in the Philippines capital was not wind . It was water , and there was no escape from it . Parma was expected to dump as much as 8 to 20 inches of rain in areas still water-logged from last week 's Typhoon Ketsana . That storm resulted in the heaviest rainfall in 40 years and at one point , 80 percent of Manila was submerged . Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro appealed to Filipinos to remain in shelters even if they were in cities and towns not directly in Parma 's path . He said he was worried about massive flooding and possible mudslides in mountainous regions . The government deployed 10,000 troops to help with rescue and relief operations as frightened Filipinos prepared for the worst . World Vision , the Christian humanitarian organization , was planning to launch relief operations Saturday evening in Isabela Province , one of the areas slammed by Parma . The group also plans assistance for nearby Cagayan province , whose capital , Tuguegarao , is being hit hard by Parma 's strong winds . Arturo Fidelino , a telecommunications executive in Manila , described panicked people rushing to stock up on essential goods -- drinking water , canned food and electrical supplies . `` We had a traumatic experience when we had Ketsana , '' he said . `` We do n't want that to happen again . '' President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo placed the country `` under the state of calamity . '' Macapagal-Arroyo said disaster-relief crews in vulnerable areas must be equipped with life-saving kits , boats , portable generators and trucks . Ketsana , which swallowed whole houses and buses over the weekend , killed 246 in the Philippines . It later strengthened into a typhoon . An additional 38 are missing , the National Disaster Coordinating Council said . The storm affected nearly 2 million people and forced the evacuation of 567,000 . CNN 's Eunice Yoon and Pamela Boykoff in Cabantuan City , and Josh Levs in Atlanta contributed to this report .
NEW : Tens of thousands dead in Philippines from Philippines , local media report . Storm heads to sea after crossing northern Philippines . 3 of Cagayan sought shelter in evacuation centers . The biggest threat was rain in areas water-logged by Philippines .