As expected, Typhoon Parma has taken a toll on the northern Philippines, and veteran chaser James Reynolds describes his experience there as his most extreme to date! James was able to intercept the eyewall as Parma made landfall in rural Luzon, riding out the most fierce elements in complete darkness. At one point his "chase vehicle" shown in the photo was struck by live power lines, which caused his arm to lose feeling and almost resulted in the death of his driver, who nearly exited the vehicle to remove the live wires!!! After getting out of that extremely dangerous situation alive, they encountered intense flash-flooding on their return trip to Laoag, in extreme NW Luzon. James will have video of his experience available soon!

Parma has declined in intensity after encountering land and dry air, and due to influences from Super Typhoon Melor to the northeast (which is currently forecast to strike Japan in coming days); Parma and is now classified as a tropical storm, and is expected to stall northwest of Luzon for several days, which could mean even more catastrophic flooding for that region. The Philippines have seen massive amounts of rain over the past several weeks, and at one point recently, 80% of the capital city of Manila was under water in the wake of Typhoon Ketsana. We'll update again soon when James' video is available!