Sunday, September 27, 2009

Philippine storm leaves 106 dead or missing








Many parts of the Philippine capital remained flooded Sunday from a tropical storm that left at least 106 people dead or missing.
Army troops, police and civilian volunteers have rescued more than 5,100 people, but tens of thousands of others were said to be still marooned by flash flooding and landslides brought on by Tropical Storm Ketsana.
Defence Secretary Gilbert Teodoro reported at least 83 people dead and 23 others missing.
The storm swept through the northern Philippines on Saturday, causing the region's worst flooding in more than four decades.
The government has declared a "state of calamity" in 25 provinces and in metropolitan Manila, which has a population of about 20 million.
Floodwaters were fast receding, but many areas of the capital remained under water, particularly in the eastern suburbs of Manila.
It's estimated that more than a quarter of a million people have had to leave their homes in storm-hit regions. Some have turned up at the 92 evacuation centres set up in Manila.
Gov. Joselito Mendoza of Bulacan province, north of the capital, said it was tragic that "people drowned in their own houses" as the storm raged.
The 42.4 centimetres of rain that swamped metropolitan Manila in just 12 hours on Saturday exceeded the 39.2-centimetre average for all of September, chief government weather forecaster Nathaniel Cruz said.
Distress calls and emails from thousands of residents in metropolitan Manila and their worried relatives flooded TV and radio stations overnight. Ketsana swamped entire towns, set off landslides and shut down Manila's airport for several hours.


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