Perilous
Times and Climate Change
Nine die, thousands flee Philippines storm
* From: AAP
* July 26, 2011 9:42PM
NINE people were killed and 25 went missing as a tropical storm
struck the Philippines, causing floods and landslides that forced
tens of thousands to flee their homes.
Tropical storm Nock-ten brought unusually heavy rains to the
Pacific coast as the cyclone hovered over the southern section of
the main island of Luzon this afternoon, the state weather service
said.
The government's civil defence administrator Benito Ramos
estimated some half a million people lived in the hardest-hit
areas, with one local official putting the number of people who
fled their homes in the tens of thousands.
"The entire (province of) Albay is affected and reporting massive
floods, landslides, and homes destroyed," Ramos told reporters.
Bernardo Alejandro, the top civil defence official of the region,
said evacuations were ongoing but that they did not have the exact
figures.
"Many areas are isolated by floods and so we could not send people
out to help them," Alejandro added.
Albay provincial governor Joey Salceda had earlier put the number
of evacuees in his province at 70,000 people.
Landslides, toppled trees and power lines as well as floods killed
seven people in the largely-rural province, Salceda told
reporters.
One person died swimming across a swollen river and another was
fatally electrocuted by a fallen power line on Catanduanes island,
off Albay, said Ramos' office, the National Disaster Risk
Reduction and Management Council.
At least 25 fishermen went missing while seven others were rescued
at sea after big waves stirred up by Nock-ten struck their mainly
small boats, it added.
Classes were called off in Manila and nearby provinces and about
20 local flights were cancelled, the council said.
The storm, packing slightly reduced 75km/h winds, hovered off the
Bicol peninsula on Luzon's southern tip at 6pm (AEST), state
weather specialist Robert Sawi told a news conference.
Nock-ten should be over the South China Sea early on Thursday
after raking across the centre of Luzon just north of Manila on
Wednesday, he added.
Some 199 millimetres of rain fell over Catanduanes, and 118
millimetres over Albay, in six hours, Sawi said.
Rainfall of more than 45 millimetres over a six-hour period is
considered heavy, he added.