Perilous
Times and Climate Change
Tropical storm Aere kills 15 in Philippines
By Jay Directo | AFP News
Fifteen people were killed and nearly 70,000 people were forced
from their homes as tropical storm Aere pummelled the Philippines,
the government said Tuesday.
The death toll from Aere, which hit on Sunday, was raised from
nine, with six more people reported killed in floods, landslides
and road accidents, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and
Management Center said.
However, after two days of heavy rains across the main island of
Luzon, the storm had weakened and was exiting the northern
Philippines on Tuesday morning, according to the national weather
bureau.
"(The storm) is moving away from the country in a north, northeast
direction," the bureau said, adding it was expected to move close
to Japan's southwest coast by Thursday.
It said Aere's maximum sustained winds had fallen to 65 kilometres
(40.3 miles) an hour, from 85 kilometres (52.7 miles) an hour on
Sunday.
The disaster agency said that nearly 70,000 people had been forced
to leave their storm-hit homes on Luzon, and the initial estimate
of damages to the farming sector was more than $2.7 million.