Officials and residents raced to prepare as the storm approached the northern part of the country. In 2013 typhoon Haiyan killed more than 6,000 people in the Philippines.
Hagupit, now a tropical storm, forced more than a million people into shelters when it hit. At least 21 people are dead. But it spared the Philippines the devastation of last year's Typhoon Haiyan.
The Rev. Kelvin Apurillo rode out Haiyan on the second floor of his parish church. Two-thirds of his parishioners are now dead, missing or have left, and he's struggling to make sense of the destruction. In the majority Roman Catholic country, the church has played a key role in relief efforts.
Filipino TV reporter David Santos describes what it was like to ride out Typhoon Haiyan and then to see the devastation. In the area where he was, Santos says, law and order quickly broke down.
More than 600,000 have been left homeless and hungry by the devastating storm. In response, humanitarian agencies are mounting the largest relief operation since the Haitian earthquake in 2010. The biggest challenge right now is getting the basics — clean water and food — to the hardest hit areas.