Green | October 01, 2011 | 9 comments

Flood ravaged Philippines braces for second typhoon in four days

source: http://www.france24.com/en/20110930-flood-ravaged-philippines-braces-new-typhoon

Image
JanforGore
Philippine authorities warned that at least a million people living in flooded villages and farmland were set to be pounded by more devastating rain from a second typhoon.

Typhoon Nesat pummelled the Philippines' main island of Luzon on Tuesday, killing at least 43 people and leaving 30 others missing as it dumped the biggest single-day volume of rain on the disaster-weary country this year.

Large areas of Luzon remain flooded with some villages enduring water nearly two storeys high, and the government said another typhoon was expected to dump just as much rain as Nesat over the same areas this weekend.

"You must help us warn these people to move to higher ground," National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management chief Benito Ramos told AFP on Friday.

"The problem is, the floodwaters from Nesat have not ebbed. Water-soaked soil is prone to landslides and flash floods."

The second typhoon, named Nalgae, was due to hit Luzon, home to 48 million people, on Saturday night with peak winds of 130 kilometres (80 miles) an hour, the state weather service said.

Ramos said churches, schools and gymnasiums were being prepared for people to seek refuge.

About 160,000 flood victims were already in state-run evacuation camps due to Nesat, with at least one million people across Luzon affected, according to government data.

Many of those affected have remained in the flooded areas, choosing a soaked existence in their homes with the support of their families and friends over crowded, poorly equipped evacuation centres.

The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 major storms a year and those living in the flat, farming plains of Luzon are used to dealing with floods each year as torrents of waters run down from mountains to the north.

But Dondon Meneses, a 23-year-old duck egg vendor, living in Candaba, a farming town in central Luzon about two hours' drive north of Manila, said Nesat's rains had been the heaviest in his lifetime.

More at the link
  1. groups:
    Green,   Water Is Life,   Endangered Earth,   Climate Extremes
  2. tags:
    Environment,  Climate Change,  Floods,  Philippines,  5 more
  3. recommended by:
    WakeUpPeople
  4.     
    |

9 comments // Flood ravaged Philippines braces for second typhoon in four days

  • artemis6
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • Image

    • http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/article/west-pacific-typhoons_20...
      The second typhoon in a week battered the rain-soaked northern Philippines on Saturday, adding misery to the lives of thousands of people, some of whom were still perched on rooftops from previous flooding.

      Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate their homes after Nalgae slammed ashore south of northeastern Palanan Bay in Isabela province. At least one person was killed in a landslide.

      The typhoon blew westward, barreling across the mountainous regions of Luzon Island. Nalgae is now headed for southern China and Vietnam.

      You can find the very latest information on the typhoon in the graphic below.

      Nalgae headed for Vietnam and southern China
      Typhoon Nalgae

      A landslide in northern Bontoc province smashed into a passenger van on a mountain highway, killing one passenger and injuring another, Civil Defense chief Benito Ramos said.

      The typhoon took a similar path across areas on Luzon saturated by Typhoon Nesat, which trapped thousands on rooftops and sent huge waves that breached a seawall in Manila Bay. The Office of Civil Defense said the death toll from Nesat has risen to 52 after two more victims drowned in its floodwaters. It said 31 others were missing.

      Nesat also pummeled southern China and was downgraded to a tropical storm just before churning into northern Vietnam on Friday afternoon, where flood warnings were issued and 20,000 people evacuated. There were no immediate reports of casualties in Vietnam and the country did not appear to have suffered any major problems.

      In the Philippines, nearly 400,000 hunkered down in evacuation centers and in homes of relatives and friends along the new typhoon's path. There was heavy rainfall of about an inch (25 millimeters) an hour within the storm's 340-mile (630-kilometer) diameter that put the northern provinces including the capital on alert.

      Isabela authorities earlier shut down electricity in the province to prevent accidents from falling power pylons and snapped cables.

      The howling winds toppled trees and blew away tin roofs of some houses in Isabela's provincial capital of Ilagan. In nearby Luna township, a bus with about 30 passengers fell on its side on a rice field because of the strong winds, but no one was seriously injured, police said.

      "The ground is still supersaturated and it cannot absorb more water," said Graciano Yumul, the Philippines' weather bureau chief. "This will just flow down to rivers and towns, and there is a big possibility that landslides, flash flooding and flooding could occur."

    • 8 months ago
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • Vic_Romano
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  

    • Over one million people affected by the second typhoon to hit the Philippines in only a week as they still struggle with flooding from the last one, Nesat.

    • 8 months ago
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
more from Green:
from the community

top videos