LEGAZPI, Philippines — Typhoon Hagupit knocked out power, left at least three people dead, and sent nearly 900,000 into shelters before it weakened Sunday, sparing the central Philippines the type of massive devastation that a monster storm brought to the region last year.
Shallow floods, damaged shanties, and ripped off store signs and tin roofs were a common sight across the region, but there was no major destruction after Hagupit slammed into Eastern Samar and other island provinces.
It was packing maximum sustained winds of 87 miles per hour and gusts of 106 miles per hour Sunday, considerably weaker from its peak power but still a potentially deadly storm, according to forecasters.
The typhoon, which made landfall in Eastern Samar late Saturday, was moving slowly, dumping heavy rain that could trigger landslides and floods.
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Traumatized by the death and destruction from Typhoon Haiyan last year, nearly 900,000 people fled to about 1,000 emergency shelters and safer grounds. The government, backed by the 120,000-strong military, had launched massive preparations to attain a zero-casualty target.
Rhea Estuna, a 29-year-old mother of one, fled Thursday to an evacuation center in Tacloban — the city hardest-hit by Haiyan — and waited in fear as Hagupit's wind and rain lashed the school where she and her family sought refuge.
When she peered outside Sunday, she said she saw a starkly different aftermath than the one she witnessed after Haiyan struck in November 2013. ''There were no bodies scattered on the road, no big mounds of debris,'' she said.
Haiyan's tsunami-like storm surges and killer winds left thousands of people dead and leveled entire villages, most of them in and around Tacloban.
Nearly a dozen countries, led by the United States and the European Union, have pledged to help in case of a catastrophe from Hagupit, disaster-response agency chief Alexander Pama said.
The EU commissioner for humanitarian aid, Christos Stylianides, said a team of experts would be deployed to help assess the damage and needed response.
''The Philippines are not alone as they brace up for a possible hardship,'' he said.