Super typhoon Hagupit, the world's most powerful storm this year, has entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility and is now locally named as Typhoon Ruby, USA Today reports.

According to USA Today, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center said that "Hagupit strengthened into a typhoon Tuesday and continued to strengthen Wednesday, with sustained winds of 150 mph." That strength is equal to a Category 4 hurricane.

Typhoon Ruby is expected to remain in the Philippines until Tuesday next week, GMA Network reports. Jun Galang, forecaster of state weather agency PAGASA, said that the typhoon entered the country around 3 AM on Thursday. Ruby will make landfall over the country's Eastern Visayas, Caraga, Bicol, and Davao on Saturday morning or afternoon.

The storm will cause Metro Manila and the other parts of the country to be partly cloudy to cloudy with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms, the news outlet noted.

Galang said storm surges are possible in Eastern Visayas, Bicol, and northeast Mindanao. He said that the waves could get as high as four meters, adding that the coastal waters along these areas will be moderate to rough, GMA Network added.

Typhoon Ruby was forecasted to either enter the country directly or turn right and only graze the archipelago. The computer models used by meteorologists do not agree on the storm's track, USA Today reports.

"If the storm takes the track into the Philippines, the impacts will be potentially very severe with widespread flooding, damaging winds, mudslides, storm surge and pounding surf," AccuWeather meteorologist Anthony Sagliani said, as quoted by the news outlet.

If the typhoon continues in its west-northwest track, it will put several areas in the Philippines in the threat zone, including "areas still recovering from deadly Super Typhoon Haiyan 13 months ago." The Weather Channel stated that Typhoon Haiyan was the most intense tropical cyclone at landfall in history, USA Today reports. Haiyan, locally named Yolanda, killed more than 6,000 people in the Philippines.

According to another report from GMA Network, vice mayor of Tacloban City Jerry Yaokasin said that they will now strictly issue forced evacuation. Tacloban was the worst hit by Haiyan.

"We have no more excuse, we have gone through Yolanda, and to lose that many lives, it's beyond our conscience already," Yaokasin said, as quoted by the news outlet.

GMA Network also added that the Philippine government sent food and medical supplies on Wednesday to category 3 provinces that will be hit by Typhoon Ruby. Residents living along coastal villages and landslide-prone communities were already warned to move to government-designated evacuation areas.

Alexander Pama, executive director of National Disaster Risk Reduction & Management Council or NDRRMC, said the agency would adopt a twinning system. It would allow authorities in a region to "take over its twin region's regional operations if the latter was severely affected by the storm," GMA Network reports.

Click here for the list of 56 provinces expected to be critically hit by the Typhoon Ruby. The list was disclosed during a meeting of the NDRRMC on Wednesday, according to GMA Network.

"According to Pagasa's latest weather bulletin issued at 11 a.m., the typhoon was seen 1,610 kilometers east of Davao City, packing maximum sustained winds of 140 kilometers per hour (kph) near its center and gustiness at 170 kph," reported Inquirer.net.

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