Wild weather: Youths wading in a storm surge along Manila Bay amid heavy rains brought by Storm Yagi. — AFP
A storm unleashed pounding rains that flooded many northern Philippine areas overnight, prompting authorities to suspend classes and government work in the capital region and warn thousands of residents to prepare to evacuate from flood-prone villages along a key river.
Tropical Storm Yagi was blowing 115km northeast of Infanta town in Quezon province, southeast of Manila, yesterday with sustained winds of up to 75kph and gusts of up to 90kph, according to the weather bureau.
The storm, locally called Enteng, was moving northwestward at 15kph near the eastern coast of the main northern region of Luzon, where the weather bureau warned of possible flash floods and landslides in mountainous provinces.
In a hilly community in Antipolo east of Manila, three people were killed, including two schoolboys and a 27-year-old pregnant woman, when a landslide hit two houses, said Relly Bernardo, the city’s disaster management chief.
“This is a landslide-prone area and we have been encouraging them to leave for the longest time with offers of housing in other locations,” he told DWPM radio station.
Bernardo said four other people died in separate incidents of drowning in the same province, Rizal, adding some homes in were submerged by floods.
Wild weather: Youths wading in a storm surge along Manila Bay amid heavy rains brought by Storm Yagi. — AFP
Storm warnings were raised in a large swathe of Luzon, the country’s most populous region, including in metropolitan Manila, where schools at all levels and most government work were suspended due to the stormy weather.
Along the crowded banks of Marikina River in the eastern fringes of the capital, a siren was sounded in the morning to warn thousands of residents to brace for evacuation in case the river water continues to rise and overflows due to heavy rains.
In Northern Samar province, coastguard personnel used rubber boats and rope to evacuate 40 villagers on Sunday in two villages that were engulfed in waist- to chest-high floods, the coastguard said.
Sea travel was temporarily halted in several ports affected by the storm, stranding about 2,200 ferry passengers and cargo workers, and several dozen domestic flights were suspended due to the stormy weather.
Downpours have also caused water to rise to near-spilling level in Ipo dam in Bulacan province, north of Manila, prompting authorities to schedule a release of a minimal amount of water that they say would not endanger villages downstream.
About 20 typhoons and storms batter the Philippines each year. The archipelago lies in the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, a region along most of the Pacific Ocean rim where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur, making the South-East Asian nation one of the world’s most disaster-prone. — AP/Reuters
