Typhoon Hagupit heads for Philippines

The Philippines are braced for the arrival of Typhoon Hagupit, expected to hit land on December 6.

Hagupit, which is building strength over the Pacific, is slowly bearing down on the region devastated by Typhoon Haiyan a year ago.

The typhoon has gusts of up to 105mph and is expected to be a category 4 storm by December 6.

Thousands of people, many still living in temporary shelters, have been told to go to evacuation centers.

Haiyan, known in the Philippines as Yolanda, was the most powerful typhoon ever recorded over land.

It tore though the central Philippines in November 2013, leaving more than 7,000 dead or missing.

Typhoon Hagupit is not expected to be a powerful as Haiyan, but could bring storm surges up to one storey high.

The vice-mayor of Tacloban, the city which was worst hit by Haiyan, said the authorities were enforcing evacuation orders.

“We have no more excuse, we have gone through Yolanda, and to lose that many lives, it’s beyond our conscience already,” Jerry Yaokasin told reporters on December 3.

He told AFP news agency: “Our problem is: we don’t have enough evacuation centers.”

Meteorologists say there is a chance Hagupit could veer north towards Japan and miss the Philippines altogether, but officials said they were preparing for a worst case scenario.