Rooftop Rescue in Flooded Philippines
"Latest typhoon kills four on northern edge of the Philippines; Storm headed north to Taiwan" by Rohan Sullivan, Associated Press | October 4, 2009
A squatter area on the outskirts of Manila was flooded yesterday after Typhoon Parma pummeled the Philippines. (Mike Clarke/AFP/Getty Images)
MANILA - Typhoon Parma cut a path across the Philippines’ northern edge yesterday, killing four people but sparing the capital from a second flood disaster as the storm churned toward Taiwan.
Related: Tidying Up After the Taiwan Typhoon
Tens of thousands of Filipinos had evacuated their homes as the storm bore down on the main island of Luzon just eight days after an earlier tempest left Manila awash in floods that killed almost 300 people. Also helping to reduce the damage, Parma weakened and changed course overnight Friday so it missed central Luzon and clipped the more sparsely populated and mountainous north.
Thank the Lord for small things as well as large.
Still, winds of 108 miles per hour battered towns in at least two provinces and pelted the northeast part of the country with downpours that swelled rivers to bursting, toppled power pylons and trees, and cut communication lines to outlying towns, officials said.
Parma was heading northwest toward Taiwan, which declared a storm warning yesterday and began evacuating villages in southern Kaohsiung County, where 700 people were killed in a typhoon in August. “The typhoon could bring torrential rain and trigger flash flooding, so government agencies should be prepared,’’ said Eric Chu, the vice prime minister.
In the Philippines’ hard-hit Isabela Province, one man drowned and another died from exposure to the cold and wet weather, said Lieutenant Colonel Loreto Magundayao of an army division based there. The National Disaster Coordinating Council said another two people died from the storm in the eastern province of Camarines Sur - one man fell from a roof and a two-year-old boy drowned.
Parma hit the coast mid-afternoon yesterday, and local officials said the true extent of the damage would not be known until communications are restored with outlying areas today or later....
I'll check the Globe tomorrow for an update.
Manila escaped the worst of the storm. On Sept. 26, Tropical Storm Ketsana caused the worst flooding in four decades, killing at least 288 people and damaging the homes of 3 million.
Yeah, I linked those pieces to start this post.
Rain fell in the city most of yesterday, and stiff gusts blew, but no new flooding or damage was immediately reported....
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