(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Around half a million people fled coastal villages and landslide-prone areas in the central Philippines yesterday, a day before a powerful typhoon was expected to hit the island nation where thousands died in a storm 13 months ago.
Typhoon Hagupit weakened slightly as it churned slowly across the Pacific, dipping below the category 5 "super typhoon" level, the Philippine weather bureau PAGASA said, but was likely to remain destructive when it hit land today.
Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific cancelled more than 150 flights to central and southern Philippines yesterday and today. Ports shut across the archipelago after the coastguard suspended sea travel.
"Over 100,000 families are already in evacuation centres," said Corazon Soliman, Social Welfare secretary. "Multiply it by five (persons per family), that's 500,000," she said, adding that most of the residents had volunteered to leave.
The eastern islands of Samar and Leyte, which are still recovering from last year's super typhoon Haiyan, could be in the firing line again.
"I am afraid and scared," said Teresita Aban, a 58-year-old housewife from Santa Rita in Samar province, wiping away tears and trembling. "We're prepared but still fearful. We haven't finished repairing our house. It still has tarpaulin patches - and here comes another storm." The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Management in Geneva said 200,000 people had been evacuated in the central island province of Cebu alone.
"Typhoon Hagupit is triggering one of the largest evacuations we have ever seen in peacetime," said spokesman Dennis McLean.
The eye of the storm hovered 305km east of Borongan, in Eastern Samar, yesterday afternoon, PAGASA said. Cold, dry Siberian winds blowing from the north had sapped some of its strength, but it was still packing winds of up to 195 kph near the centre, with gusts of up to 230 kph. "Although we said it has weakened, 195 kph is still very strong ... We should not be complacent," said Landrico Dalida, Jr acting deputy administrator for operations at PAGASA.
The agency added that the radius of the storm had narrowed slightly to 600km from 700km, but said it would still bring torrential rain and 3-to 4-metre storm surges when it slams into Eastern or Northern Samar provinces today evening.
The weather bureau also said the typhoon had veered slightly north and was moving west-northwest towards eastern coasts at around 13 kph.
More than 7,000 people died or went missing when typhoon Haiyan, known locally as Yolanda, tore through the central Philippines in November 2013.
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