A mother and child sit next to the ruins of their house in Samar province. Source: AFP

Hagupit struck the far eastern island of Samar on Saturday with winds of 210km/h, making it the most powerful storm to hit The Philippines this year and threatening widespread destruction.

The typhoon weakened as it travelled west across the central Philippines, passing close to the capital, Manila, early yesterday with only a fraction of the forecast torrential rain.

After a series of catastrophic storms in recent years killed thousands, President Benigno Aquino spearheaded what the UN said was one of the biggest peacetime evacuation efforts ever.

Mr Aquino issued nationwide orders to ensure there was no repeat of Super Typhoon Haiyan, which claimed more than 7350 lives as it devastated entire communities in November last year.

Nearly 1.7 million people sheltered in evacuation centres as Hagupit passed their areas, according to government figures, and authorities hailed the strategy as a template for coping with future disasters.

“One of the lessons (from Haiyan) was to evacuate before the storm hits, evacuate if you live near the sea, evacuate if you live near trees whose branches might fall on you. That lesson was learnt,” Philippine Red Cross chairman Richard Gordon said.

Mr Gordon said another crucial factor was Hagupit did not generate storm surges, compared with Haiyan when walls of sea­water more than two storeys high laid waste to hundreds of thousands of coastal homes.

In Manila, tens of thousands of people, mostly the city’s poorest residents who live in shanty homes along the coast and riverbanks, spent the night in evacuation centres.

“I’m relieved and thankful that I still have my house,” Corazon Macario, 63, said.

“But I pity those who have lost their homes in the Visayas.”

Ms Macario was referring to the central islands of the Southeast Asian archipelago that felt the full force of Hagupit and Haiyan. They include Samar, one of the nation’s poorest islands about 600km southeast of Manila, which has long suffered because it is regularly the first to be hit by storms that sweep in from the ­Pacific Ocean.

Most of the 27 people reported to have been killed were in Samar, according to the Red Cross.

Interior Minister Manuel Roxas said 200,000 people were believed to be in need of help on eastern Samar, but this could rise as more comprehensive assessments were carried out in isolated communities.

In San Julian, a poor farming and fishing town on Samar, mother of four Rosario Organo sat with a daughter in front of their ruined bamboo and palm thatch home yesterday.

“My only wish is that my family could get a good night’s sleep,” Ms Organo, 41, said.

AFP