Thousands flee as Typhoon Hagupit nears Philippines

About 500 , 000 evacuate coastal areas, already devastated by
typhoon Haiyan , as the erratic storm ' s path widens.
About half a million Filipinos fled their homes as a powerful
typhoon bore down on the disaster-weary island nation
where thousands died in a storm 13 months ago .
Typhoon Hagupit edged closer to the Philippines on
Saturday, dipping below an earlier category five "super
typhoon" level , as it remained on course to make landfall
later in the day.
About 500 , 000 people evacuated coastal villages and
landslide-prone areas in Samar and Leyte provinces , areas
devastated from last year ' s super typhoon Haiyan that killed
more than 7 , 300 people .
At least 47 of the country ' s 81 provinces are potentially at
high risk , with weather officials still unclear over its
forecasted path .
"Over 100 , 000 families are already in evacuation centres , "
Social Welfare secretary , Corazon Soliman said . " Multiply
it by five [ persons per family ] , that ' s 500, 000, " adding that
most of the residents had volunteered to leave.
The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction
said about 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 , " UNISDR spokesman
Denis McClean said .
Forecasters said Hagupit , Filipino for "smash , " will begin
rapidly weakening as it approaches land.
The Philippine weather bureau PAGASA , projected a
southern path for the typhoon and said it was packing winds
of 195 kilometres per hour and gusts of 230 kph.
"Although we said it has weakened, 195 kph is still very
strong . . . We should not be complacent , " Landrico Dalida ,
junior acting deputy administrator for operations at
PAGASA said .
The agency added that the radius of the storm had
narrowed slightly to 600km from 700km , but said it would
still bring torrential rain and three -to four -metre storm
surges when it slams into Eastern or Northern Samar
provinces on Saturday evening.
Al Jazeera meteorologist Everton Fox said much of the
country could expect heavy rain . He also said that the
typhoon is moving "very , very slowly ", and could remain in
the typhoon- prone country for two to three days .
Dozens of domestic flights were cancelled and inter - island
ferry services were suspended .
Parts of the Philippines are still recovering from Typhoon
Haiyan, one of the biggest cyclones known to have made
landfall anywhere.
It killed around 7 , 000 people last November in the central
provinces, many in tsunami - like sea surges , and left millions
homeless.