No major damage as Philippine storm weakens

Typhoon Hagupit knocked out power, mowed down trees and sent more than 8,00,000 people into shelters before it weakened today, sparing the central Philippines the type of devastation that a monster storm brought to the region last year.
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 late yesterday, 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.
Nearly a dozen countries, led by the United States and the European Union, have pledged to help in case of a catastrophe, disaster-response agency chief Alexander Pama said.

The EU commissioner for humanitarian aid, Christos Stylianides, said a team of experts would be deployed to help assess the damage and needed response.
"The Philippines are not alone as they brace up for a possible hardship," Stylianides said, adding that the European Commission was "hoping that the impact will be less powerful than a year ago, when Typhoon Haiyan left a devastating imprint on the country."
Authorities were verifying reports of some deaths, but none had been confirmed so far, Pama told a news conference. Two women were injured when the tricycle taxi they were riding was struck by a falling tree in central Negros Oriental province.

Displaced villagers were asked to return home from emergency shelters in provinces where the danger posed by the typhoon had waned, including Albay, where more than half a million people were advised to leave evacuation sites.
Nearly 12,000 villagers, however, will remain in government shelters in Albay because their homes lie near a restive volcano.