Approaching Philippine storm brings back nightmare of Typhoon Haiyan

Villagers fled their coastal homes and sparked panic-buying in grocery stores and gas stations in a central Philippine region on Thursday, as an approaching powerful storm brought back nightmares of last year’s deadly onslaught from Typhoon Haiyan.

Government forecasters said Typhoon Hagupit, which was packing sustained winds of 195 kilometres per hour and gusts of up to 230 kph, may hit Eastern Samar province on Saturday and barrel inland along the same route where Haiyan leveled villages and left more than 7,300 dead and missing in November last year.

Haiyan survivor Emily Sagales said many of her still-edgy neighbours in central Tacloban city, which was worst hit by Haiyan, have packed their clothes and fled to a sports stadium and safer homes of relatives. Long lines have formed at grocery stores and gas stations as residents hoarded basic goods, she said.

Sagales, who gave birth to a baby girl in a crowded makeshift clinic filled with the injured and the dying near the Tacloban airport in the aftermath of last year’s typhoon, said the approaching storm had triggered bad memories.

“The trauma has returned,” the 23-year-old Sagales said, adding she packed her clothes Thursday after officials in her village alerted everyone that they might have move. “It’s worse now because I didn’t have a baby to worry about last year and I had not experienced how it was to be right in the middle of a big typhoon.”

Hotels in Tacloban reported that they were running out of rooms as wealthier families booked ahead for the weekend.