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Hurricane Safety and Preparedness 


 
 






Typhoon Hagupit (Ruby): 500,000 Evacuated in Tacloban and Outlying Provinces







By Associated Press 


   Published Dec 4 2014 12:00 AM EST 


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As Typhoon Hagupit quickly approached the Philippines, half a million residents left their homes and scrambled Friday to make final preparations for the massive storm. This comes just one year after a devastating super typhoon devastated some of the same areas.Hagupit – which translates to "smash" in Filipino – closed within a few hundred miles of the country's eastern coast Friday. The storm, locally known as Ruby, may hit Eastern Samar province on Saturday, crashing inland with devastating winds and rain along nearly the same route Haiyan took last November. That storm killed more than 7,000 and leveled villages in what was one of the planet's worst weather disasters of 2013.In Tacloban city, where Haiyan did some of the most catastrophic damage, half a million people have been moved to safer areas of the island as Hagupit approaches."Forecasts from various computer models have finally come into agreement tracking Hagupit through the Philippines starting Saturday. Hagupit is expected to track farther north than Haiyan did in November 2013, and will not be nearly as intense, but still will be likely a formidable typhoon, equivalent to a Category 3 or 4 storm," said weather.com senior meteorologist Jon Erdman. "Another concern is Hagupit's slow movement. Torrential rainfall, possibly in excess of 2 feet, may trigger life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides, particularly in mountainous terrain.""I'm scared," said Haiyan survivor Jojo Moro. "I'm praying to God not to let another disaster strike us again. We haven't recovered from the first."The 42-year-old businessman who lost his wife, daughter and mother last year in central Tacloban city, said he stocked up on sardines, instant noodles, eggs and water.(MORE: Check the Typhoon Hagupit Forecast)Dozens of domestic flights were canceled, and inter-island ferry services were suspended. About half a million people have been evacuated in Leyte and Samar provinces, including Tacloban, this time with little prompting from the government, said Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman."We've not heard of villagers resisting to be evacuated," regional disaster-response director Blanche Gobenciong said. "Their trauma is still so fresh."Television footage showed residents in Tacloban stacking sandbags to block floodwaters. One McDonald's store also was closed and boarded up. During last year's typhoon onslaught, most stores and supermarkets in the city were looted by residents as food ran out.
What worries me the most? People along the Samar coast not getting high enough to avoid the massive storm surge coming. #RubyPH #Hagupit— Jim Edds (@ExtremeStorms) December 4, 2014

At least 47 of the country's 81 provinces are considered potentially at high risk from Hagupit, officials said. The first one in its path is Eastern Samar province, where it is expected to make landfall late Saturday. It is then expected to cut across central islands along a route northwest. But its path thereafter is debatable.The computer models of the two agencies tracking the typhoon closely - the U.S. military's Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Hawaii and the Philippine weather agency - predicted different directions for the typhoon.The U.S. agency said Hagupit (pronounced HA'-goo-pit) may veer northwest after coming inland and sweep past the southern edge of Manila, a city of more than 12 million people. The Philippine agency, known by its acronym PAGASA, projected a more southern path. But both tracks appeared to be coming closer together as it approached land.The typhoon strengthened again early Saturday but both agencies said it would weaken as it hits land. (MORE: Typhoon Haiyan's Catastrophic Impacts on the Philippines)Gobenciong said the unpredictable path of the typhoon made it harder to ascertain which areas would be hit."We have a zero-casualty target," she said. "Just one loss of life will really sadden us all and make us wonder what went wrong."Hagupit's erratic behavior prompted the government to call an emergency meeting of mayors of metropolitan Manila. Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said he'd rather "over-prepare than under-prepare."Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada said that authorities have alerted residents. "We are ready," he said, but pointed out "these typhoons change direction all the time."
RT @earthuncuttv: Front of hotel being boarded up, Christmas tree wrapped in Calbayog #typhoon #RubyPH #Hagupit pic.twitter.com/5IDUSL4O3l— Hurricane Central (@twc_hurricane) December 6, 2014

Haiyan demolished about 1 million houses and displaced some 4 million people in the central Philippines. Hundreds of residents still living in tents in Tacloban have been prioritized in the ongoing evacuation.Dr. Steven Godby, an expert in natural hazards at Nottingham Trent University in Nottingham, said the Philippines experiences five to 10 cyclones a year on an average, the most hitting any country.He said the right oceanic conditions to create deadly typhoons "come together in the western Pacific and put the Philippines in the firing line as a result.""Isolated island groups like the Philippines are particularly vulnerable to tropical cyclones and the threats come from the high winds, storm surge and heavy rains these storms bring," he said.

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