More than half a million people in the Philippines have fled from a powerful typhoon in one of the world's biggest peacetime evacuations, as the storm threatens to wreak more destruction on areas still bearing the scars of a super typhoon 13 months ago.
Residents of Samar island said they were experiencing strong winds, heavy rain and blackouts today as Typhoon Hagupit churned towards eastern provinces of the archipelago.
The storm had weakened to category 3, two notches below" super typhoon", but could still unleash huge destruction with torrential rain and potentially disastrous storm surges of up to 4.5 metres.
"Ruby's lashing will be severe," Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas told government radio, referring to the local name for Typhoon Hagupit.
"Let's be alert. Let's evacuate to prevent any harm to your families."
With winds of up to 175 kph (110 mph) near the centre and gusts of up to 220 kph (137 mph), the storm was moving slowly at13 kph (8 mph), the weather bureau PAGASA said, and was expected to hit Eastern Samar province between 8pm and 10pm (1200-1400 GMT).
"The wind feels like there's a huge electric fan blowing airfrom the Pacific," said Mr Roxas, speaking from Eastern Samar.
Today Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific cancelled about 100 flights to central and southern Philippines.
More than 616,000 residents of low-lying villages and landslide-prone areas have fled to schools, civic centres, town halls, gyms and churches, according to the national disaster agency.
At least 50 municipalities in the central Philippines and the southern part of the country's main Luzon island were at risk of storm surges, with the eye of the storm set to cross five provinces, the Science and Technology department said.
The typhoon was unlikely to hit the capital Manila, home to around 12 million people, the agency said.
The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva said 200,000 people had been evacuated in the central island province of Cebu alone.
"Typhoon Hagupit is triggering one of the largest evacuations we have ever seen in peacetime," said spokesman Denis McClean.
Relief agency Refugees International said in a statement it was "deeply concerned" that evacuation centres may not be safe.
"A damage assessment of designated evacuation centres in typhoon-affected areas indicated that in some places - such as Eastern Samar, where Hagupit is headed - less than 10% of evacuation centres were likely to withstand future typhoons, "the group said.
