PHILIPPINES: Heavy floods submerge half of metropolitan Manila, the weather bureau says, as residents rush to flee rising waters

Record ID: 860403

  • Title: PHILIPPINES: Heavy floods submerge half of metropolitan Manila, the weather bureau says, as residents rush to flee rising waters
  • Date: 7th August 2012
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Filipino) TOWN CHIEF, RENATO TANYAG, SAYING: "What we need are donations of clothes, and I hope we can be placed inside an evacuation centre. The school did not accept us. The people should be gathered first." WIDE VIEW OF PEOPLE OUTSIDE BUILDING
  • Embargoed: 22nd August 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Philippines
  • City:
  • Country: Philippines
  • Topics: Disasters,Environment
  • Reuters ID: LVA44XLSA7KDKD2IERSMWB6330B6
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Non-stop torrential rains pounded the Philippine capital and nearby provinces, triggering floods that covered half of Manila and forced thousands to flee their homes on Tuesday (August 7).
    More than 20,000 people are staying inside evacuation shelters, the welfare department said.
    Water levels reached over some residents' heads in several districts, where rescue workers brought those marooned to safer ground.
    Margie Ellezar and her daughter were shivering, as they were taken on a rubber boat from their flooded street in Quezon City, a northern suburb of metropolitan Manila.
    "It was scary. The water level was so high. The others were left behind, many of them," Ellezar said.
    Some residents were stranded on rooftops, waiting for help as flood waters engulfed their homes, local media reported.
    The flooding crippled traffic, shut down the stock market, and prompted schools and government offices to close.
    Thousands of commuters were stranded. Some cars were floating in neck-deep floods.
    Residents from a shanty area in Quezon City who fled the flood waters were appealing for help.
    "What we need are donations of clothes, and I hope we can be placed inside an evacuation centre. The school did not accept us. The people should be gathered first," chief of Tatalon town district, Renato Tanyag, said.
    Schools and sports gyms across the capital were converted into temporary shelters.
    The floods raised fears of a disaster on the scale of Typhoon Ketsana in 2009, when a months' worth of rains were dumped in six hours, triggering flash floods that killed 464 people.
    Local weather bureau PAGASA recorded a total rainfall of about 222.6 millimetres (8.76 inches) in the past 9 hours.
    The death toll from days of sustained rains across the Philippines has reached 51, with nearly 270,000 people forced to flee their homes, the disaster agency said.
    Weather authorities say more rains will hit northern and central Philippines in the next 24 hours, warning of flash floods and landslides.
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