Hagupit: Manila holds breath

Its sustained maximum wind speeds diminished to 105 kilometers per hour (65 mph) and gusts to 135 kph by Monday afternoon, Hagupit - Tagalog for "smash" or "lash" - was advancing at 10 kilometers per hour (6.2 mph) toward the capital, Manila. In the city of more than 12 million people schools, government offices and the financial markets were closed and commercial flights canceled as residents awaited the tropical storm, downgraded from a typhoon since Sunday.

Hagupit had battered the Philippines all through Sunday after making landfall Saturday in the archipelago's east, downing power and telephone lines, ripping off roofs and flattening homes. Residents in the east have begun returning home to survey the damage caused by the most powerful storm to hit the Philippines this year.

"We're happy that we've learned our lessons from our past experiences," Gwendolyn Pang, the secretary-general of the Philippine Red Cross, said on Monday. "This is a good sign."

'We prevented tragedy'

The death toll from Typhoon Hagupit stood at four on Monday, after up to a million people took shelter in evacuation centers across the central belt of the archipelago in advance to escape the fury of the Category 2 storm, which announced its arrival with 210 kph gusts. A year ago, the Category 5 Super Typhoon Haiyan had torn through the central Philippines, leaving more than 7,300 dead or missing and 4 million displaced.

This time, the authorities took no chances and evacuated whole towns and villages in coastal and landslide-prone areas. Hundreds of thousands of residents were evacuated to churches, schools, or public gymnasiums in advance.

"We saw that with preparation and being alert we prevented tragedy and harm," Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas told a televised government meeting in Samar Monday. "We took our countrymen away from harm. It is sad to hear news of deaths, but this is very low, way below what the potential was."

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