More than 1 million people have fled to shelters away from coastal areas and landslide-prone villages by the time Typhoon Hagupit made landfall on Saturday night, in what a U.N. agency said was one of the world’s biggest peacetime evacuations. Reuters report:
As the storm barrelled in from the Pacific, power was cut across most of the eastern island of Samar and nearby Leyte province, including Tacloban City, considered ground zero of the devastating super typhoon Haiyan last year.
“I can’t penetrate the areas, I can’t go north or south because of fallen trees and power lines. Many areas are flooded,” Ben Evardone, congressman for Eastern Samar, said from his base in the provincial capital Borongan.
Local radio reported at least two people were killed in Eastern Samar, that could not be confirmed by officials. The Philippine Red Cross said they were also verifying the report.
