Typhoon Hagupit strikes Philippines (video aljazeera)

Typhoon Hagupit has killed at least three people, destroyed homes and and flooded coastal communities across the eastern and central Philippines, affecting millions of people.
The storm moved in from the Pacific Ocean and struck remote fishing communities on Samar island on Saturday night, but weakened from 210km to 165km an hour as it continued its path through the country on Sunday.

The wind strength made Hagupit the most powerful storm to hit the Philippines this year, exceeding a typhoon in July that killed more than 100 people.


In a span of just 24 hours, the storm brought 396mm of rain, which is equivalent to half a month of precipitation.

Two people, including a baby girl, died of hypothermia in central Iloilo province at the height of the typhoon, officials said.
Another person died after being hit by a falling tree in the eastern town of Dolores, where the typhoon first made landfall, according to Mar Roxas, interior secretary.

Two women were injured when the tricycle taxi they were riding was struck by a falling tree in central Negros Oriental province.
"Tin roofs are flying off, trees are falling and there is some flooding," Stephany Uy-Tan, the mayor of Catbalogan, a major city on Samar, told AFP news agency.
According to reports from news agencies and local media, close to a million people had fled to shelters in areas along the path of the typhoon.
So far, the provinces of Albay, Camarines Sur and Masbate have declared emergency.
Al Jazeera's Andrew Thomas, reporting from the capital Manila, said that the storm had made another landfall in the central island of Masbate, but had slightly weakened as it moved northwest.
Witnesses in Masbate told him that roads had been blocked from typhoon debris, making it difficult to deliver food packages to evacuees.

Lessons of Haiyan
In a statement to Al Jazeera, the UN office in Manila said the humanitarian needs in the Philippines would not be fully known until Hagupit passed over.
Fearful of a repeat of last year when Supertyphoon Haiyan claimed more than 7,350 lives, the government launched a massive evacuation effort to provide shelter to people in the path of Hagupit.
"The government is absolutely determined to do this better," Al Jazeera's Thomas said............................http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2014/12/typhoon-tears-into-disaster-weary-philippines-201412713344420641.html
7/12/4
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Related:
 

• Philippines Start to Evacuate Residents Amid Fears of Powerful Typhoon (3/12/14)

• About half a million people have fled coastal villages and evacuated their homes in the Philippines as a powerful storm approaches the archipelago (6/12/14)

• ***le super typhon Haiyan

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Philippines Start to Evacuate Residents Amid Fears of Powerful Typhoon

The Philippines have started to evacuate residents of coastal villages and landslide-prone communities following warnings of typhoon Hagupit, which is expected to hit the central part of the country, Reuters said.
 Typhoon Hagupit, which translates “lash” from Filipino, is currently near the Palau islands, but is expected to hit the eastern Philippines after picking up more strength – Hagupit’s winds are expected to reach up to 140 km per hour and gusts more than 170 km per hour.

“Definitely we will now strictly enforce forced evacuation,” said vice-mayor of Tacloban City in Central Philippines Jerry Yaokasin, as quoted by Reuters. “We have no more excuse, we have gone through Yolanda, and to lose that many lives, it’s beyond our conscience already”.

Last year, Typhoon Haiyan left more than 7,000 people dead or missing. Tacloban City was almost entirely flattened, accounting for nearly half of the dead, Reuters reported.
[sputniknews.com]
3/12/14
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***le super typhon Haiyan