Heavy rains lash Manila and northern Philippines
Pastor Dale Morgan
Heavy rains lash Manila and northern Philippines*
MANILA, Aug 15 (AFP) Aug 15, 2007
Heavy rains lashed Manila and other parts of the northern Philippines on
Wednesday flooding streets and causing major disruptions to businesses
and schools, the government weather bureau said.
In Manila traffic was brought to a virtual standstill as blocked drains
turned roads into rivers with water in some parts of the city waist deep.
All government offices were closed and workers sent home just before
noon while a convoy carrying President Gloria Arroyo's was held up for
more than an hour by flooding, local media reported.
Local television station ABS-CBN said on its website that Arroyo's trip
from the presidential palace in Manila to a nearby suburb to address a
meeting would normally have taken 15 minutes.
Flooding saw massive traffic jams especially on roads leading into
Manila where tailbacks were said to have been several kilometers long.
Children were carried on their parents' shoulders to keep them above the
water while others resorted to using makeshift rafts made from timber
and styrofoam.
The heavy rain was caused by typhoon "Sepat" which skirted the east
coast of the main island of Luzon Wednesday morning, the weather bureau
said.
Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim said trucks were being sent out across the city
to pick up commuters stranded by the floodwaters.
"I have asked police to borrow trucks so they can be used to help our
stranded commuters to get home," he said on local television.
Typhoon Sepat, packing maximum winds of up to 195 kilometres (121 miles)
per hour, was not expected to hit the Philippines directly and was
forecast to pass north of the main island of Luzon, towards the southern
coast of Taiwan.
The civil defence office said they had no reports of casualties or
serious damage caused by the rains.
"In Metropolitan Manila, the city government has already evacuated some
200 residents," said civil defence chief of operations Agnes Palacio.
Rain is expected to continue falling on the northern and central regions
of Luzon and Visayas, the weather bureau said, warning people living on
slopes and coastal areas to beware of flashfloods, landslides or storm
surges.
Storms in recent weeks have brought an end to the threat of a prolonged
dry spell that had slowed agricultural growth and raised the prospect of
power shortages due to insufficient water levels at hydroelectric dams.