Typhoon Lupit can be seen slowly weakening as it approached the northern Philippines on Wednesday.
Residents of the northern Philippines offered prayers that Typhoon Lupit, the third tropical cyclone to bear down on the region in less than a month, would spare their battered communities.
The storm slowed to a near standstill on Wednesday as disaster officials prepared to prevent any further fatalities in the wake of at least 438 deaths in flooding and mudslides from Typhoons Ketsana and Parma.
Lupit, a Filipino word for cruel, was predicted to weaken from a Category 4 storm to Category 1 force before brushing northern parts of Luzon Island.
But forecasters were also concerned the storm could jog northward, then strike Taiwan as well.
Typhoon Lupit Track
Satellite Loop Data: CIMSS