A former Tauranga woman living in the Philippines says she "got off lightly" when Typhoon Hagupit hit.
Pauline Curtis-Smith has been living in Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro for the past 11 years. She set up Ruel Foundation, a Christian children's charity organisation formed in 2000 to provide free medical aid to children living in remote areas in developing nations.
At least 21 people are known to have died as a result of the typhoon. Last year more than 7000 died after Typhoon Haiyan left mass destruction in its wake.
"It was heading straight for us so we got in extra food, organised our generators and water, removed our awnings and sun shades and advised our staff what to do if the typhoon hit us badly, but the typhoon has lessened, it is still raining heavily here with strong winds but we are okay," Mrs Curtis-Smith said from the Philippines yesterday afternoon.
Mrs Curtis-Smith was relieved the organisation had only received flooding during the tropical storm.
The 62-year-old moved from Tauranga to the third-world-country when she saw the need to provide basic medical care.
"I got to see many severely malnourished children. I took the first two home with me, their parents were not able to take them back ... that was the beginning of my orphanage and home for malnourished children.
"I adopted one of those first two and one of my staff adopted the other little girl. We have now placed 30 kids around the world and saved I don't know how many lives."
Joshua Rea, who visits the Bay during the summer, said the typhoon had not hit Manila as hard as initially forecasted.
"It was nothing more than rain and heavy winds in the south of Manila, but nothing major. It was initially classed as a category four when coming to the Philippines, which is why everyone was so scared but by the time it arrived it was category two and not bad at all."