Philippines: Hagupit no Haiyan

Media report scattered injuries and up to four deaths since Hagupit - Tagalog for "smash" or "lash" - made landfall Saturday, moving west-northwest across the Philippines at 15 kilometers per hour (9 mph) and blowing sustained 140 kph winds and 170 kph gusts, weaker from its peak power but still a potentially deadly storm, according to forecasters. On Sunday, Hagupit continued to dump rains that could trigger landslides and floods.

An early assessment found shallow flooding and damaged shanties but no major destruction after Hagupit slammed into Eastern Samar and other provinces in the Philippines. Officials warn that Hagupit, downgraded from a Category 5 storm to a Category 2, remains on course to barrel across three major central islands before starting to blow away into the South China Sea Tuesday.

Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman said that several typhoon-lashed eastern villages had fallen out of contact owing to downed telephone and power lines.

'Cross our fingers'

Traumatized by the thousands of deaths and massive destruction left behind after Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, up to a million people fled to more than 1,000 emergency shelters and other safe spaces to wait out Hagupit. The government, backed by the 120,000-strong military, had launched massive preparations to attain a zero-casualty target.

"Let's cross our fingers that it will stay that way," Philippine Red Cross Secretary-General Gwendolyn Pang said, of the low reports of human tragedy so far. "It's too close to Christmas."

Severe storms have become more unpredictable because of climate change, according to the UN and many scientists. Environmentalist and humanitarian groups have expressed hope that the typhoon would spur action at the UN climate talks in Lima, where almost 200 nations have attempted to work out an accord to slow global warming, set for signing at a summit in Paris next December.

"My country is under water, farms have been wiped away, homes destroyed, families separated," Shubert Ciencia, of the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement, said in Lima on Saturday. "We want action, not pity," Ciencia added. "Negotiators have a chance to make history by standing up for those who have already lost so much and the millions more who will suffer the same fate unless we act now."

mkg/mg (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)