Around half a million people fled coastal villages and landslide-prone areas in the central Philippines on Friday, 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 on Saturday.
Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific cancelled more than 150 flights to central and southern Philippines on Friday and Saturday. 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.