"Let's prepare for everything,” Philippines President Benigno Aquino said in a televised meeting. Authorities said Hagupit would likely hit or pass near areas that are still recovering from Super Typhoon Haiyan, the most powerful storm ever recorded on land and which killed or left missing more than 7,350 people in November last year.
In one of the cities devastated by Haiyan, Tacloban, some residents began evacuating from coastal areas which are likely to be hit by Hagupit. People emptied supermarkets of essential supplies.
Currently, Hagupit is still 700 kilometers from the Philippines, due to the distance the weather forecasters were not able to say exactly where the storm would hit. The government will issue mandatory evacuation directives because the enormous radius of the storm at 700 kilometers will expose millions of people to severe winds and intense rain.
On Thursday, schools remained closed and ships ordered to stay in port across the eastern Philippines.
The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 major storms a year, many of them deadly.
