Thousands evacuate as Philippines braces for typhoon Hagupit
6 Dec 2014 12:55 AM GMT
Tens of thousands of people fled coastal villages and landslide-prone areas in the central Philippines on Friday, as typhoon Hagupit bore down on eastern coasts of the island nation where thousands were killed in a devastating storm last year.
Ports were shut across the archipelago, leaving more than 2,000 travellers stranded in the capital Manila, the central Bicol region and Mindanao island in the south, after the coast guard suspended sea travel ahead of the typhoon.
Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific cancelled some of their flights to central and southern Philippines. Areas yet to recover from last year’s category 5 “super typhoon” Haiyan, also known in the Philippines as Typhoon Yolanda, could be in the firing line again, the local weather bureau said. “It’s better to evacuate early...We don’t want to experience what we went through during Yolanda,” said Gigi Calne, a housewife seeking shelter with about 3,000 others at a school in Basey, in Samar province, in central Philippines. “It was difficult to save our family and ourselves because we moved too late.” Haiyan left more than 7,000 dead and more than 4 million homeless in Philippines in 2013.
Ports were shut across the archipelago, leaving more than 2,000 travellers stranded in the capital Manila, the central Bicol region and Mindanao island in the south, after the coast guard suspended sea travel ahead of the typhoon.
Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific cancelled some of their flights to central and southern Philippines. Areas yet to recover from last year’s category 5 “super typhoon” Haiyan, also known in the Philippines as Typhoon Yolanda, could be in the firing line again, the local weather bureau said. “It’s better to evacuate early...We don’t want to experience what we went through during Yolanda,” said Gigi Calne, a housewife seeking shelter with about 3,000 others at a school in Basey, in Samar province, in central Philippines. “It was difficult to save our family and ourselves because we moved too late.” Haiyan left more than 7,000 dead and more than 4 million homeless in Philippines in 2013.
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