Manila braces for Hagupit as typhoon leaves 27 dead in eastern Philippines
PUBLISHED : Monday, 08 December, 2014, 5:08pm
UPDATED : Monday, 08 December, 2014, 9:34pm
Reuters in Manila
Residents living along coastal areas in Manila are evacuated ahead of Typhoon Hagupit's arrival in Batangas province. Photo: AP
Typhoon Hagupit weakened to a tropical storm as it churned close to the Philippine capital on Monday, after killing 27 people on the eastern island of Samar island where it flattened homes, toppled trees and cut power and communications.
Manila shut down as Hagupit, which means “lash” in Filipino, took aim at the tip of the main island Luzon, just south of the capital city of 12 million people.
“We now have a total of 27 dead, most of them in Borongan, Eastern Samar,” said Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippine Red Cross, adding most of the dead drowned in floodwaters.
He said around 2,500 houses were totally or partially destroyed in Borongan, a town of 64,000 people.
But despite the rising death toll, there was relief that Hagupit had not brought destruction on the scale of super typhoon Haiyan, which last year killed thousands of people in the same areas of the central Philippines.
Hagupit roared in from the Pacific as a Category 3 typhoon on Saturday night, churning across Samar island and on to the smaller island of Masbate. Its effects were felt across the central Philippines, including Leyte island and southern Luzon.
“Our kitchen was wrecked. Around us, our neighbours’ homes were flattened like folded paper,” Arnalyn Bula, a 27-year-old bank employee, said from Dolores town in Eastern Samar, where Hagupit first made landfall.
Howling winds had pounded the walls of her aunt’s home where her family sought shelter, she said.
A man retrieves a gas bottle from a house destroyed by Typhoon Hagupit in Borongan city, Samar island. Photo: Reuters
Learning lessons from Haiyan, which left more than 7,000 dead or missing, the authorities had launched a massive evacuation operation ahead of the storm, emptying whole towns and villages in coastal and landslide prone areas.
“We saw that with preparation and being alert we prevented tragedy and harm, we took our countrymen away from harm,” Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas told a televised government disaster meeting in Samar. “It is sad to hear news of deaths, but this is very low, way below what the potential was.”
Clear-up operation
Despite the relief that Hagupit had not been as devastating as was feared, a major operation remained to clear debris and get supplies to people left homeless or without power after the typhoon flattened houses and tore down power lines.
Delia Monleon, mayor of Jipapad, a town of 7,000 people in Eastern Samar province, said floodwaters were still preventing people from getting to their homes.
“Our problem is power, food is a problem because boats cannot leave,” said Monleon. “It was flooded yesterday so we can’t leave to look for food,” she said.
Proceso Alcala, the farm minister, said initial reports put crop and farm infrastructure damage at 1 billion pesos (US$22 million). Rice crops were most affected, with little damage to corn.
Alcala said the state grains agency was considering importing an additional 600,000 tonnes of rice to boost buffer stocks after 48,000 tonnes of unmilled rice was damaged.
Children in the town of Dolores, Samar island, ask passing motorists for food. Photo: Reuters
Mayor Emiliana Villacarillo of Dolores, in Eastern Samar, the area where Hagupit first made landfall, said almost 100 per cent of ricelands in the town were submerged by floodwaters.
“Our farmers will have to go back to square one and plant again. We will need new seedlings,” she said.
Armed forces chief of staff General Gregorio Catapang told a news conference two C-130 planes loaded with supplies, including food and water, flew on Monday to Borongan, Eastern Samar, after soldiers had cleared three airports, including Tacloban City.
More than 48,000 residents of Tacloban had fled to shelters, but damage to the city that was devastated by Haiyan in November last year was relatively minor.
“A lot of them have begun to go home. In Tacloban this morning, the sun is shining, people just started going back,” said Orla Fagan, spokeswoman and Asia-Pacific advocacy officer at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
