Photo #1: A worker checked on a toppled powerline outside Manila yesterday after Typhoon Mirinae hit, causing a massive power outage. Gusts hit 115 miles per hour at the storm's peak.
Photo #2: A resident of Santa Cruz struggled after Mirinae brought fresh flooding to the northern Philippines. The region has been hit by three other typhoons since September.
She is wading through a knee-deep river that was once a street, holding on to a guiding rope strung along the facades of the what appear to be shacks or sheds.
Article:
"Grim situation gets worse in Philippines as another storm hits" by Oliver Teves, Associated Press | November 1, 2009
MANILA - A typhoon yesterday battered the Philippine capital and surrounding provinces still reeling from recent flooding, sending residents of one town clambering onto rooftops to escape rising waters. Seven people died and at least five were missing....
Yeah, it has pretty much been NON-STOP RAIN for the LAST MONTH, but the Globe said things have gotten back to normal, so....
The muddy floodwater receded as rains eased later in the day, but was still chest-high in some communities....
It's unimaginable to me. Can you imagine walking, I mean, swimming(?) through that to do.... anything?
Typhoon Mirinae was the fourth storm to lash the northern Philippines since late September and brought new hardship to areas still struggling following the previous disasters. Nearly 95,000 people who fled during two prior storms were still living in temporary shelters when Mirinae struck, the national disaster agency said. Yesterday’s storm headed out to sea in the afternoon and weakened into a tropical storm. It appeared to be heading toward Vietnam.
And what occurs to me is that Samoa and Indonesia -- which suffered tsunamis due to earthquakes and landslides due to rain -- are again unmentioned and ignored.
As Mirinae slammed into Quezon Province northeast of Manila around midnight Friday, Philippine authorities evacuated more than 115,000 people in nine provinces east and south of the capital in the storm’s path on main Luzon island, the National Disaster Coordinating Council reported. At the storm’s height, its winds were blowing 93 miles per hour and gusting up to 115 miles per hour. One river in Laguna Province, south of Manila, overflowed, washing away a bridge and flooding most of lakeside Santa Cruz town. Residents clambered onto roofs to escape the waters, said Mayor Ariel Magcalas....
In Manila, residents hunkered down in their homes as rains beat down on dark, deserted streets. Mirinae passed south of the city of 12 million. The sprawling metropolis saw its worst flooding in 40 years in late September when Tropical Storm Ketsana hit the capital and nearby provinces. In many suburban communities, the floodwaters had still not receded when Mirinae struck. Ketsana was quickly followed by Typhoon Parma, which triggered massive landslides in Luzon’s mountain region. More than 900 people were killed in the storms, and a third then threatened the northern Philippines before veering toward Japan. Ahead of yesterday’s typhoon, millions of Filipinos had boarded buses for their home provinces for the Nov. 1 All Saints Day holiday, when people visit cemeteries to pay respects to dead relatives in this devoutly Roman Catholic nation.
Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro expressed fear that floods and traffic congestion may trap visitors at graveyards, where people traditionally spend a day or even a night, but few heeded his call to scrap this year’s commemorations. Radio stations reported that large crowds converged on cemeteries even in flooded areas. Carrying candles, food, and rain gear, many settled in for an overnight vigil.
May God watch out for and protect them all.
--more--"
As a companion brief, the Glob selected this:
"$2m demanded for Irish missionary
What, the "terrorists?"
Always back to the "terrorists" with you guys!
