..... did the Philippines evacuate all of those people from the low-lying coastal zones ... ahead of the typhoon? because if an evacuation didnt take place, then I have no idea how people survived the flooding and the huge ocean waves created by that storm.
A great many of them didn't survive the flooding. There have been numerous stories from survivors who managed to cling to something but watched loved ones washed away.
I believe the government did warn people to evacuate. However, this is a third world country, and many people probably didn't have the means to evacuate easily. And many others probably feared that what little they had would be looted if they left, and so stayed behind to guard their property. Also, one must ask, evacuate to where? While the upland areas were not flooded, they were still very hard hit from the winds.
A recent article
At a Philippine Hospital, Survivors Face Quiet Despair gives some idea of the intensity of the storm, as seen from two miles inland in an area not flooded:
Mr. Pulga stayed behind to guard their small, wood house. He tried to hide from the wind by hunching down behind the back of the house, only to find the wind and rain swirling in from every direction. A large coconut, accelerated to extraordinary speed by gusts that may have exceeded 200 miles per hour, rocketed through the dark and struck his leg, breaking it.
As he lay alone and injured, the wind tore the house into little pieces and flung them into the night. He was hit by a chunk of wood that bloodied his eye and cut the right side of his face. His 16-year-old nephew, at the home of one of Mr. Pulga’s sisters, went outside to take a quick look at the storm and was struck by a piece of wood so heavy and sharp and moving so fast that it severed his leg, eventually killing him, Mr. Pulga said.
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