As the typhoon-battered Philippines braces for its third major storm in less than a month, one silver lining might be the pre-emptive evacuations that have been organized in the last few days. Or maybe not.

''Some people are just really stubborn and refuse to leave,'' Cordillera Regional Civil Defense Chief Olive Luces told the Associated Press Saturday.

Despite recalcitrant evacuees, the thousands evacuated from the path of Typhoon Lupit—expected to make landfall in the northern part of the country today—can be seen as an improvement over responses to September’s Typhoon Ketsana, Typhoon Parma earlier this month, and subsequent landslides. Government warning and response has been severely criticized in the wake of the serial disasters, which have left more than 850 dead and thousands displaced, according to a Reuters report.

"The government is simply not accountable to the people when it comes to disaster," University of the Philippines Community Development Professor Emmanuel Luna, who specializes in disaster risk reduction, told Reuters.

Among the many criticisms of government response are claims of inadequate storm tracking and mapping, failure to provide timely and serious alerts, and a hodgepodge of make-do warning systems that includes banging on methane tanks or painting danger lines on buildings, according to the article. The current administration’s inability to stem the tide of trash in the capitol, keep squatters from camping in dangerous flood zones, or end corruption that drains government funds are seen as adding to disaster woes.

“We have floods every year. But every year, we are unprepared," resident Ramil Digal Gulle is quoted by Reuters. "How do you explain the fact that the government can spend millions upon millions on so many other projects, but could only produce two rubber boats to rescue scores of residents trapped in a flooded Marikina village [in Manila]?"

Although some of the government condemnations stand, officials deny claims that victims of Ketsana, Parma, and recent landslides weren’t given adequate warning of the danger. In some cases, according to the AP, landslide victims recounted watching water leach into their walls and floors but didn’t leave their homes.

Even after the previous storms’ death tolls, officials said many of those urged to evacuate were taking the wait-and-see approach. Rescue workers who are already in the area attending to the displaced warned help might not be available if they stayed, according to an AlertNet article.

"Our aid workers are already overstretched due to the massive relief efforts that we've been doing in the past three weeks," World Vision’s Filomena Portales said. "If Lupit batters the communities who have yet to recover from the previous wreckage, it would be harder for us to reach those in need."