Hagupit first made landfall in Eastern Samar late Saturday when President Benigno Aquino III has decided to cancel a trip to South Korea. Three days after it first made landfall in the country as a Category 3 typhoon, Hagupit was still bringing heavy rain to the central Philippines on Monday. The highest rainfall totals include 17.06 inches at Catbalogan and 15.55 inches at Borongan, both on Samar Island. Displaced villagers have been asked to return home from emergency shelters in provinces where the danger posed by the typhoon had waned.”The devastation in homes is huge because of the strong winds,” Philippine Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas told to local media. Widespread evacuation has been vital. Many people do not have homes anymore. Fortunately, the storm has not caused the widespread flooding and landslide damage that weather forecasters and emergency management officials had feared. Hagupit was clearly a powerful storm but nowhere near as powerful as the last years’s Haiyan. The authorities believed they were well prepared this time. Soldiers have been deployed to major roads along the typhoon’s path, to clear debris from roads and prevent looting. However, the extent of the damage is not yet entirely known.
