500,000 evacuated as Rubys

path widens

closed and boarded up. During last years

typhoon onslaught, most stores and
supermarkets in the city were looted by
residents as food ran out.
High risk
At least 47 of the countrys 81 provinces are
considered potentially at high risk from Ruby,
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.

Hundreds of residents take shelter inside the provincial capitol of

Surigao City on Friday in anticipation of Typhoon Ruby which is
expected to hit land Saturday afternoon. AP

MANILA, PhilippinesHalf a million Filipinos

fled their homes as differing forecasts about the
path of a dangerously erratic typhoon one
predicting it will graze the capital, Manila
prompted a wide swath of the country to
prepare for a weekend of destructive winds and
rain.
Typhoon Ruby (international name: Hagupit,
which means smash in Filipino) was expected
to hit the central Philippines late Saturday,
lashing parts of a region that was devastated by
last years Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) and left
more than 7,300 people dead and missing. The
typhoon regained strength Saturday but
forecasters said it will begin rapidly weakening
as it approaches land.
Im scared, said Yolanda survivor Jojo Moro.
Im praying to God not to let another disaster
strike us again. We havent recovered from the
first.
The 42-year-old businessman, who lost his wife,
daughter and mother last year in Tacloban City,
said he stocked up on sardines, instant noodles,
eggs and water.
Flights cancelled, villagers evacuated
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.
Weve 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 McDonalds store also was

The computer models of the two agencies

tracking the typhoon closely the US militarys
Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Hawaii and
the Philippine weather agency predicted
different directions for the typhoon.
The US agency said Ruby may veer northwest
after coming inland and sweep past the
southern edge of Manila, a city of more than 12
million people. The Philippine Atmospheric
Geophysical and Astronomical Services
Administration (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. Pagasa said it was packing winds of
185 kilometers per hour (from 195 kph earlier)
and gusts of 220 kph (from 230 kph). The US
center, using one-minute average wind speed
with higher readings than Pagasas 10-minute,
said Ruby was again a super typhoon with
maximum sustained winds of 240 kph and gusts
of 296 kph.
Unpredictable
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.
Rubys erratic behavior prompted the
government to call an emergency meeting of
mayors of metropolitan Manila. Defense
Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said hed rather
over-prepare than under-prepare.
Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada said that
authorities have alerted residents. We are
ready, he said, but pointed out that these
typhoons change direction all the time.
Yolanda demolished about one million houses
and displaced some four million people in the

pg. 1

central Philippines. Hundreds of residents still

living in tents in Tacloban have been prioritized
in the ongoing evacuation.

mayor of Catbalogan, a major city on Samar,

told AFP by phone minutes after Ruby made
landfall.

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.

Fearful of a repeat of last year when Super

Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) claimed more than
7,350 lives, the government undertook a
massive evacuation effort ahead of Ruby that
saw millions of people seek shelter.

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.

Ruby was forecast to take three days to cut

across the Philippines, passing over mostly poor
central regions, while also bringing heavy rain
to the densely populated capital of Manila
slightly to the north.

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.

Ruby tears down homes in

disaster-weary Philippines

The government warned of storm surges up to

16-feet high in some areas, flash flooding,
landslides and winds strong enough to tear
apart even sturdy homes.
Tens of millions of people live in the typhoons
path, including those in the central Philippines
who are still struggling to recover from the
devastation of Haiyan, which hit 13 months ago.
Yolanda was the strongest storm ever recorded
on land, with winds of 315 kilometers an hour,
and generated tsunami-like storm surges that
laid to waste entire towns.
As day broke on Sunday, many areas across the
eastern Philippines could not be reached by
phone and it was impossible to know how badly
they were damaged, Red Cross secretary
general Gwendolyn Pang told AFP.

Strong winds and rain pound the seawall hours before Typhoon
Hagupit passes near the city of Legazpi on December 7, 2014.
Typhoon Hagupit tore apart homes and sent waves crashing
through coastal communities across the eastern Philippines,
creating more misery for millions following a barrage of deadly
disasters.

LEGAZPI CITY, PhilippinesTyphoon Ruby

(Hagupit) tore apart homes and sent waves
crashing through coastal communities across
the eastern Philippines on Sunday, creating
more misery for millions following a barrage of
deadly disasters.
The typhoon roared in from the Pacific Ocean
and crashed into remote fishing communities of
Samar island on Saturday night with wind gusts
of 210 kilometers an hour, local weather agency
Pagasa said.
The wind strength made Ruby the most
powerful storm to hit the Philippines this year,
exceeding a typhoon in July that killed more
than 100 people.
Tin roofs are flying off, trees are falling and
there is some flooding, Stephany Uy-Tan, the

In those that were reachable, residents and

officials reported terrifying winds and waves
that destroyed homes, although with most
people in evacuation centers there were hopes
casualties would be few.
In Tacloban, one of the cities worst-hit by
Yolanda, palm-thatch temporary houses built by
aid agencies for survivors of last years typhoon
had been torn apart, Vice Mayor Jerry Yaokasin
told AFP.
Better prepared
However there was no repeat of the storm
surges that did the most damage during
Yolanda.
There is a collective sigh of relief. The initial
assessment is that there are no casualties. We
were better prepared after Yolanda, up to
50,000 people were packed in evacuation
centers, he said.
But the transitional shelters made of nipa
(palm thatch) were blown away. Our biggest
challenge is how to provide for those who were
displaced because of that.

pg. 2

In the eastern region of Bicol that is due to be

hit throughout Sunday and Monday, authorities
said they were aiming for 2.5 million people
half the local population to be in evacuation
centers.
At dawn on Sunday, huge waves pounded the
coast of Legaspi, a major city in Bicol that was
due to feel Rubys full force later in the day.
Walls of walls of seawater more than one-metre
high crashed above the citys seawall and
sprayed water and debris onto the deserted
Legaspi Boulevard, according to an AFP
reporter.
The Philippines endures about 20 major storms
a year which, along with regular earthquakes
and volcano eruptions, make it one of the
worlds most disaster-plagued countries.
The storms regularly claim many lives but they
are becoming more violent and unpredictable
because of climate change, according to the
United Nations and many scientists.
Haiyan was the worlds deadliest natural
disaster last year.
In 2011 and 2012, there were consecutive
December storms that together claimed more
than 3,000 lives and were the words deadliest
disasters of those years.
And in July this year, Typhoon Glenda
(Rammasun) killed 111 people when it cut
across Manila, paralyzing the capital for days,
and other parts of the main island of Luzon.

Philippines 10 deadliest storms

A survivor wipes his face before a Philippine flag in typhoonravaged Tacloban, a city short of food and water, and littered with
countless bodies.

MANILA, PhilippinesTyphoon Ruby (Hagupit)

was on Sunday churning across the Philippines,
the latest in a never-ending series of oftendeadly storms that plague the Southeast Asian
archipelago.

With more than 7,100 islands, the country is hit

by an average of 20 typhoons or tropical storms
each year.
The storms are created above the warmer
waters of the Pacific Ocean near the equator,
and the Philippines islands are often the first
major landmass they hit as they move
northwest.
The following are the 10 deadliest typhoons on
record in the Philippines*.
1. Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), the
strongest storm ever recorded on land,
destroys entire towns across the central
Philippines on November 8, 2013.
When the government stopped its
count months later, more than 7,350
people were listed as dead or missing.
2. Tropical
Storm
Uring
(Thelma)
unleashes flash floods on the central
city of Ormoc on Leyte island on
November 15, 1991, killing more than
5,100.
3. Typhoon Pablo (Bopha) smashes into
the main southern island of Mindanao
on December 3, 2012. Rarely hit by
major storms, the unprepared region
suffers about 1,900 people dead or
missing.
4. Typhoon Nitang (Ike) hits the central
Philippines on August 31, 1984, killing
1,363 people.
5. Typhoon Sendong (Washi) hits the
northern part of Mindanao island on
December 16, 2011, killing at least
1,080 people.
6. Floods and landslides unleashed by
Typhoon Trix kill 995 people in the Bicol
region of the main island of Luzon on
October 16, 1952.
7. Typhoon Amy rakes across the central
islands in December, 1951, with floods,
landslides and a massive storm surge
killing 991 people.
8. Typhoon Sisang (Nina) hits the eastern
city of Legaspi on November 25, 1987,
triggering giant storm surges and
unleashing mudslides down Mayon
volcano that claim 979 lives.
9. Typhoon Frank (Fengshen) tracks an
erratic and destructive path across the
central islands and nearby areas from
June 20, 2008, killing 938 people.
10. Typhoon Rosing (Angela), with gusts of
up to 260 kilometers an hour, causes
carnage in Bicol and later Manila from
November 2, 1995, killing 936 people.

pg. 3

pg. 4

Editorials
PIMENTEL, KEVIN J.

If theres one thing that people

should avoid, it definitely should be
Typhoons. People from the affected regions
should evacuate as soon as possible to
lessen the dangers of this said typhoon.
Natural calamities carry unimaginable destruction. Rich or poor, it doesnt
matter what race you are, and the only
ways to overcome such catastrophic events
are being alert, evacuate as early as
possible, and ask for Gods guidance.

pg. 5