⌛ super typhoon

Another typhoon to hit Luzon. Latest Philippine Breaking, Business, Sports, Entertainment News and Blogs - GMANews.TV - Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs - Latest Philippine News

 

Hopefully it dies by the time it makes landfall!

 

8:00PM Sat your time



MANILA, Philippines — Typhoon Parma slammed into the Philippines on Saturday, ripping off roofs, toppling power pylons and swelling rivers in the country's mountainous north. At least two people were killed, an official said.

The storm — the country's second in eight days — cut a path across the northeastern tip of the main island of Luzon and was headed in the direction of Taiwan, where evacuations of southern villages were under way.

The capital, Manila, escaped the worst of the storm. The city was still reeling from one on Sept. 26 that caused the worst flooding in four decades, killing at least 288 people and damaging the homes of 3 million more.

The provinces of Cagayan and Isabela were hardest hit Saturday by powerful winds and drenching rain, cutting some communications and roads to some towns.

"The damage is quite heavy," Cagayan police Chief Roberto Damian told ABC-CBN television. "We are clearing highways and roads to reach people calling for rescue."

In Isabela, one man drowned and another died from exposure to the cold and wet weather, said Lt. Col. Loreto Magundayao of an army division based in the province.

Tens of thousands of people were moved to safe ground across the Philippines ahead of the typhoon, though officials said the threat of another national disaster eased as Parma changed course overnight Friday and bypassed the capital, parts of which are still chest-deep in floodwaters.

Trees were uprooted and power poles toppled in the provincial capital of Tuguegarao, Cagayan local government official Bonifacio Cuarteros told The Associated Press by telephone. Buildings had their roofs torn off. Similar damage was reported in neighboring Isabela.

Parma hit the coast packing sustained winds of 108 mph (175 kph), though they weakened as the storm passed overland, the national weather bureau said.

Weather bureau chief Prisco Nilo warned that the heavy rain could trigger landslides and flooding, and strong winds could create tidal surges "similar to a tsunami" along the eastern coast.

After the storm changed course, officials began moving back tens of thousands of people who had been evacuated from coastal areas that might have been in the path of the storm.

Taiwan issued a storm warning and began moving people out of villages in the southern county of Kaohsiung, local official Lin Chun-chieh said. Flash floods from the last typhoon to hit the Kaohsiung area killed about 700 people in August.

The earlier storm to hit the Philippines, Ketsana, went on to hit other Southeast Asian countries, killing 99 in Vietnam, 14 in Cambodia and 16 in Laos.

It was part of more than a week of destruction in the Asia-Pacific region that has claimed more than 1,500 lives so far: an earthquake Wednesday in Indonesia; a tsunami Tuesday in the Samoan islands; and Typhoon Ketsana across Southeast Asia.

Another typhoon, Melor, was churning in the Philippine Sea, 1,600 miles (2,575 kilometers) to the east, threatening the U.S. territory of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Most businesses there were shut Saturday morning, and residents of the island of Saipan who don't live in concrete homes moved to typhoon shelters, said Charles Reyes, Northern Marianas Gov. Benigno Fitial's press secretary.

 

May I ask if there was any damage in the Negros?

 

Damages by falling trees .....yes.
But I have'nt heard of serious problems/injuries.
We are quite lucky regarding the path taken normally by typhoons.
I did however not know this when we decided for staying here around Dumaguete.
Meanwhile I realize how important it is to be in a (rather) safe zone.

 

7:30 PM your time


Rain, floods in N. Philippines kill over 100

Friday, October 9, 2009; 5:44 AM

MANILA (Reuters) - Rescue workers dug out more than 120 bodies from under tons of mud and debris in northern Philippines on Friday as dozens of landslides buried villages after a week of relentless rains, officials said.

Scores of towns and villages in the lowlands were flooded as overflowing dams opened their sluice gates to release water. At least 122 were killed by landslides and 13 others have previously been killed by the rains, which started one week ago.

"As of this moment, we have already retrieved 122 bodies," Olive Luces, regional disaster head for the mountain regions, told television. Most of the deaths were in the vegetable-growing Benguet province, and in neighboring Mountain Province.

"We really have no idea how many people were buried when the landslides happened because it was almost midnight and everybody was asleep," said Loreto Espineli, police chief of Benguet. "Our recovery efforts are slowed down by mud, heavy rains and lack of power."

The rains were brought by Typhoon Parma, which first hit the Philippines last Saturday and has since hovered around the northern part of the main island of Luzon, although it has weakened into a tropical depression.

Besides setting off landslides in the mountains, the rain has swollen rivers and reservoirs, forcing dams to release water and flooding areas downstream. Television pictures showed towns and farmland in the plains transformed into vast lakes, dotted with trees and buildings.

WATER ALL OVER


About 60 to 80 percent of the coastal province of Pangasinan has been flooded and 30,000 people evacuated, said Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Torres at the NDCC.

"Many of the roads are impassable, under six to eight feet of water and hundreds are marooned on the roofs of their towns," said Butch Velasco, a disaster official in Pangasinan. "The water level has reached the second storey of their homes."

Thousands spent the night on rooftops or scrambling to higher ground.

Provincial Governor Amado Espino told local radio rain and strong currents were hampering rescue efforts. "We're isolated, all our major roads are closed. Even some of our evacuation centers are now flooded. We need all the help."

In Nueva Ecija province to the east, 23 towns and cities were hit by floods, Governor Aurelio Umali said. Roads from Manila to the north were cut off.

The U.S. military diverted troops and equipment from nearby exercises, anchoring a Navy relief ship off Pangasinan and pressing into service helicopters and small aircraft. Philippine military units and equipment were also in the area.

Relief officials estimated total damage at nearly 2 billion pesos ($43 million), including 1.6 billion pesos in lost crops.

The floods come two weeks after a previous storm inundated areas in and around the capital Manila. That storm, called Ketsana, killed at least 337 people and forced half a million from their homes.

About 7.63 billion pesos in crops were damaged, mostly rice about to be harvested, forcing authorities to consider more imports. A further 2.7 billion pesos in infrastructure - roads, bridges and schools - was damaged, disaster officials said.

(Reporting by Manny Mogato and Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

 

Yes, seen the news down here too. Absolutely terrible....Looks very much like Luzon is approaching total meltdown. Thank God the US military has assets in the region...Maybe the Philippines will forget the jingoistic sham of their hopelessly corrupt independence and invite the US back to their former bases...

Anyway, for what little it's worth....Caritas has the lowest overheads of welfare agencies...and puts almost 100% of donations to good use. It's our first choice in the Philippines....and this crisis may go on for a very long while.

 

1:00 PM PI TIME


Deluge in rain-soaked Philippines kills over 160
By HRVOJE HRANJSKI (AP) – 14 hours ago

MANILA, Philippines — Driving rain on the heels of back-to-back storms triggered dozens of landslides across the northern Philippines on Friday, burying more than 160 people, washing away villages and leaving almost an entire province under water.

The latest deluge brought the death toll to nearly 500 from the Philippines' worst flooding in 40 years after storms started pounding the country's north on Sept. 26.

More than 160 people were killed in landslides in Benguet and Mountain Province along the Cordillera mountain range, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) north of Manila, officials said. Residents were jolted awake by the rumbling sound of mudslides and floodwaters tearing apart the saturated soil and washing away homes.

Rescuers wading through sloshy mud from nearby Bagiuo city retrieved at least 162 bodies, bringing the total deaths in the two provinces since Typhoon Parma struck on Saturday to 174, said regional disaster relief officer Rex Manuel. At least 48 others were missing and 120 were pulled out alive.

Nearly the entire village of Kibungan in Benguet was buried under tons of mud and debris, Manuel said. Some 45 bodies were recovered so far. Rescuers used pulleys and cables to transport the dead they retrieved from piles of rubble.

TV footage showed the bodies arriving in black bags in a hall in Baguio, where relatives wept after recognizing their loved ones.

"There was a sudden rumble above us, and then the houses at the bottom were gone, including them," said Melody Coronel, pointing to the relatives she found among the dead.

In Mountain Province, 15 bodies were retrieved while 20 people were missing from a village in Tadian township, Manuel said.

Landslides blocked the roads to the mountain city of Baguio, where 48 people died, in the heart of the Cordillera region. The only way to reach the isolated, mountain communities was by foot, and military helicopters could not fly yet because of fog and rain, said Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres of the government's disaster-relief agency.

"We are focused on rescue at this time," he said. "It is raining nonstop in the Cordilleras."

About 100 landslides have struck the region since the weekend.

In Benguet province's Buyagan village, only three out of about 100 houses remained visible after Thursday night's landslide buried most structures there. Some 50 residents were saved and seven bodies recovered, Manuel said.

As the mountain region struggled with the rescue operation, farther to the south, in Pangasinan province, pounding rains prompted authorities to discharge excess water from swollen dams. The deluge caused the Agno River and surrounding dikes to burst their banks, inundating 30 out of 48 towns, a scene of mayhem that sent residents onto rooftops, scrambling for safety.

Better weather allowed the Philippine coast guard and U.S. Navy helicopters to pluck people marooned on the roofs and treetops.

In Rosales, also in Pangasinan province, the biggest mall in town was flooded by neck-deep waters that sent appliances floating and smashing through glass panels. Some residents were seen carrying some of the goods away.

About 1,000 people remained stranded in the mall as night fell Friday. Others whose houses were flooded retreated to higher floors or were staying with relatives and neighbors.

Forecasters said Parma, which was downgraded to a tropical depression, was still lingering off the northeastern coast. It hit land more than a week ago, the second major storm to drench the country in two weeks. Tropical Storm Ketsana, which struck Sept. 26, left 337 people dead, most of them in and around Manila.

The government's disaster relief agency said it had asked the U.S. Embassy to redeploy hundreds of American troops from the massive cleanup in Manila to the flood-hit areas in the north. The U.S. government doubled its aid pledges to $4.3 million.

Two U.S. Navy ships were positioning in the Lingayen Gulf in Pangasinan to provide helicopters and rubber boats for the rescue mission, said U.S. Marine Capt. Jorge Escatell.

Six U.S. Navy CH-46 transport helicopters were on standby at Clark Air Base and two more were at a Philippine military camp in nearby Tarlac province, Torres said.

 

5:00 PM guess the worst is over...now the digging and cleaning

MANILA — Search and rescue teams on Sunday struggled to reach areas of the northern Philippines cut off by storm-triggered landslides and flooding that have left more than 600 people dead, officials said.

In the heavily-damaged northern province of Pangasinan, many towns remained under water while landslides had virtually cut off mountainous communities from rescuers, disaster relief officials said.

Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral said the government had sent tons of food, medicines and clothes to a military base in the north but delivery to affected communities was slow.

"There is a significant number of people affected," she said. "Our problem is getting to them."

She said helicopters have been dropping food packs in Pangasinan, a province of 2.5 million that has been submerged in deep waters for the past three days.

Four US military helicopters were due to airlift 10 tons of food to Baguio, a popular mountain resort that has been isolated after deadly landslides triggered by tropical storm Parma, spokesman Captain Jorge Escatell told AFP.

"It's going to be an all-day mission... we are trying to get some help out there," he said.

There have given varying reports of casualties, but the police in the Cordillera Administrative Region, which includes Baguio and several provinces hit with deadly landslides, said the death toll there alone climbed to 275 as more bodies were dug up from landslides Sunday.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council in Manila however placed the official toll at 193 from Parma, which finally blew out into the South China Sea late Friday after pummelling northern Luzon for a week.

Altogether the death toll from Parma and tropical storm Ketsana, which killed 337 in Manila and surrounding areas, now stands at over 636, with fears the toll could rise, officials said.

Ketsana triggered the worst flooding in Manila and nearby areas in four decades on September 26, and many areas still remain flooded two weeks later.

Both storms affected over six million people, with over 300,000 people remaining in evacuation camps.

Many highways remained impassable to all types of vehicles in the provinces of Tarlac and Pangasinan, with flood waters unable to empty out into the Lingayen Gulf to the west of Luzon because of high tides.

Television footage shot by rescuers showed houses, malls and factories submerged in a vast sea of brown water, with rescuers plucking survivors off trees and rooftops the past two days.

The flooding was largely due to heavy rains and water released by the authorities from two dams that were in danger of bursting.

In the Cordillera region, meanwhile, roads and bridges were destroyed by a deadly cocktail of mud and rocks, while houses lay in ruins.

Mud-streaked residents carrying belongings were shown dangerously negotiating a muddy cliff that was once a mountain pass.

Parts of Baguio, where President Gloria Arroyo maintains a retreat house, was also flooded with run-off water from the slopes.

Secretary Cabral said she expected the number of people in evacuation camps in the north to rise significantly in the coming days once the military is able to clear up roads of debris.

 

Don't forget those Filipino who are constantly in demonstration against the 'USA' and anti-american. Lo and behold, our US Navy and US Marines were deployed from Yokosuka, Japan (USS Essex) to assist the Philippines. I don't see the United Nations group helping a hand. It is always the USA extending a hand to help a country when disaster happens.