Authorities in a Philippine city ravaged by Super Typhoon Haiyan are today faced with how to keep residents still living in tents after the 2013 disaster safe as a new, powerful cyclone threatened to smash into the city.
The state weather service said Typhoon Hagupit was heading west for the central islands of Samar and Leyte, and would make landfall as early as Saturday afternoon with gusts of up to 170 kilometres (106 miles) an hour.
Residents in the city of Tacloban, which bore the brunt of Haiyan — the most powerful storm ever to make landfall — last year were clearing out grocery shelves in an effort to stock up on emergency provisions ahead of the storm.
Meanwhile authorities were due to meet later Wednesday to identify new evacuation centres far from shore.
Tacloban city Vice Mayor Jerry Yaokasin said about 500 families were still living in tents more than a year after waves up to seven metres (23 feet) tall driven ashore by Haiyan destroyed their homes.
The weather service said Wednesday that shorelines are vulnerable to “storm surges” or walls of water up to four metres tall that could be driven ashore by Hagupit´s violent winds.
