Floods Bring Philippine Capital to Standstill, 15 Dead
At least fifteen people were killed and several were missing as torrential rains brought the Philippine capital to a standstill Tuesday, with floodwaters covering half the sprawling city, officials said.
More than 20,000 people fled their homes due to the rising waters while a deadly landslide buried four houses in a Manila suburb, police said.
As local television flashed live footage of rampaging rivers carrying off houses and Manila residents marooned on their rooftops, President Benigno Aquino said the government was doing everything it could to help.
"Everybody who is supposed to do something is doing what he is supposed to do," he told reporters after meeting with civil defense officials.
Schools, financial markets and most government and private offices were shut as key roadways in Manila -- a metropolis of some 15 million people -- were submerged by waters that in some areas reached neck-deep.
Residents of low-lying slums fled the huge shantytowns lining Manila's rivers and sewers for the safety of schools, gymnasiums and government buildings as the downpour generated by seasonal monsoons struck overnight.
Army trucks hauled stranded residents from their homes, while enterprising children fashioned crude rafts out of scrap wood and banana tree trunks and charged people to ferry them around.
Power was turned off in some parts of the capital as a precautionary measure as the waters seeped into electrical facilities, the city's power distributor said.
Police said the Manila landslide, caused by half a month's worth of rain falling on the capital in the past 24 hours, left nine dead.
Six other people were rescued from under the rubble and taken to hospital for treatment, she told Agence France Presse.
Four people meanwhile drowned in nearby Bulacan, a flood-prone province near Manila, local police chief Senior Superintendent Fernando Mendez said.
Even before the latest deluge, the death toll from eight days of sustained rains had reached 53 with more than 268,000 people forced to flee their homes across the country, according to disaster authorities.
In some areas of the city, people were trapped on the second floor of their houses by the fast-rising waters.
Government weather forecaster Bernie de Leon said that in the 24 hours to Tuesday morning, 323 millimeters (13 inches) of rain fell on the capital, compared to average monthly rainfall of 504 millimeters for August.
The civil defense office said that while some 20,000 people fled to evacuation centers overnight, many more sought refuge in relatives' homes.
Source: Agence France Presse
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