REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MANILA -- Powerful Typhoon Hagupit started lashing the eastern Philippines late Saturday, knocking down trees and causing power outages hours before it was expected to make landfall in a region still haunted by a monster storm last year, with 600,000 people fleeing to safety.

Although it was unlikely to reach the unprecedented strength of Typhoon Haiyan, Hagupit was packing winds strong enough to cause major damage to an area still reeling from the devastating November 2013 storm, which left more than 7,300 people dead or missing.

"There are many trees that have toppled, some of them on the highway," police Senior Inspector Alex Robin said by phone late Saturday from Dolores, the first coastal town expected to be hit by Hagupit. "We are totally in the dark here. The only light comes from flashlights."

Hagupit — Filipino for "smash" or "lash" — was expected to slam into the central Philippine province of Eastern Samar, where Dolores is located, then hammer parts of a region that was devastated by Haiyan's tsunami-like storm surges and ferocious winds. Hagupit weakened slightly on Saturday, but remained dangerously powerful and erratic.

Robin said about 600 families had hunkered down in the three-story municipal hall, one of many emergency shelters in Dolores.

"Everyone here is just looking for a place to sleep," he said. "All the windows are closed, but it is still cool because of the wind and the rain."

"We're on red alert, so the entire armed forces is being mobilized for this typhoon," Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang, head of the Philippines' 120,000-strong military, told a news conference earlier Saturday after discussing last-minute preparations.

Army troops deployed to supermarkets and major roads in provinces in the typhoon's path to prevent looting and chaos and clear debris, all of which slowed the government's response last year, Catapang said.

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