Typhoon Hagupit knocked out power, mowed down trees and sent more than 8,00,000 people into shelters before it weakened on Sunday, sparing the central Philippines the type of devastation that a monster storm brought to the region last year. Three people died in the storm.
Shallow floods, damaged shanties and ripped off store signs and tin roofs were a common sight across the region, but there were no confirmed deaths or major destruction after Hagupit slammed into Eastern Samar and other island provinces.
It was packing maximum sustained winds of 140 kilometres per hour and gusts of 170 kph today, considerably weaker from its peak power but still a potentially deadly storm, according to forecasters.
The typhoon, which made landfall in Eastern Samar on Saturday, was moving slowly, dumping heavy rain that could possibly trigger landslides and flash floods.
Traumatised by Typhoon Haiyan’s massive death and destruction, more than 8,00,000 people fled to about 1,000 emergency shelters and safer grounds. The Government, backed by the 1,20,000-strong military, had launched massive preparations to attain a zero-casualty target.
Rhea Estuna, a 29-year-old mother of one, fled Thursday to an evacuation centre in Tacloban, the city hardest-hit by Haiyan last year, and waited in fear as Hagupit’s, wind and rain lashed the school where she and her family sought refuge.
When she peered outside today, she said she saw a starkly different aftermath than the one she witnessed last year after Haiyan struck.
“There were no bodies scattered on the road, no big mounds of debris,” Estuna told The Associated Press by cellphone. “Thanks to God this typhoon wasn’t as violent.”
Haiyan’s tsunami-like storm surges and killer winds left thousands of people dead and levelled entire villages, most of them in and around Tacloban.