Typhoon Hagupit knocked out power in coastal provinces, mowed down trees and sent more than 650,000 people into shelters as it roared through the Philippines, but lessons from last year’s disaster seem to have avoided mass deaths.

Desperation gripped Philippine islands devastated by Typhoon Haiyan as looting turned deadly and survivors panicked over shortages of food, water and medicine, some digging up underground water pipes and smashing them open.

RESCUERS searched for more than 800 people missing in the southern Philippines yesterday after flash floods and landslides swept houses into rivers and out to sea, killing more than 650 in areas ill-prepared to cope with storms.

The death toll from storm-triggered flash floods that devastated a wide swathe of the southern Philippines has risen to 521, the Philippine Red Cross said today.