MANILA, PHILIPPINES Fifteen people were killed Tuesday and 130,000 people displaced in floods and landslides caused by heavy rains in the Philippine capital
and several provinces, officials said.
Government offices, courts and schools were suspended in Manila and nine northern provinces after rain since Sunday night caused major dams and rivers to
overflow.
The president’s office also ordered private businesses to close, while the Philippine Stock Exchange suspended trading.
Up to 50 per cent of metropolitan Manila — an area of about 12 million inhabitants — was flooded, according to Benito Ramos, head of the Office of Civil
Defense.
“It was like water world out there,” he said.
Ramos said 58,237 people abandoned their homes to stay in evacuation centres in Manila and other affected provinces, while 70,800 took shelter with their
relatives or friends.
Many roads in the capital were impassable as flood waters reached two metres in some areas. Hundreds of commuters and scores of cars were stranded in swamped
streets across Manila, which was recovering from its soaking by Typhoon Saola last week.
Eight people, including five children, were killed when a landslide buried three houses in a village in the Manila suburb of Quezon City, according to Mayor
Herbert Bautista.
Three people drowned in Bulacan province, north of Manila, according to provincial police director Fernando Mendez. In Batangas province, two girls ages 7
and 9 drowned while trying to cross a swollen river, police said.
One man died after he was electrocuted and an 80-year-old man drowned in nearby Malabon City, authorities said.
Television footage showed people waving from rooftops and rescuers using inflatable rafts to evacuate residents in other areas. In one area, rescuers had to
cross a rope tied above a flooded street to get shivering residents to safety.
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