16 Filipinos killed as typhoon wreaks havoc
Print Edition
Residents of flooded farming villages in the Philippines were trapped on their rooftops yesterday and animals floated down fast-rising rivers, as the death toll from Typhoon Koppu climbed to 16.
Koppu, the second strongest storm to hit the disaster-plagued Southeast Asian archipelago this year, had also forced more than 60,000 people from their homes, authorities said.
After making landfall on Sunday morning on the east coast of Luzon, the Philippines鈥 biggest island, the slow-moving typhoon brought heavy rain to some of the nation鈥檚 most important farming areas.
鈥淚鈥檝e never seen anything like this. It鈥檚 the worst flood I鈥檝e seen in my entire life,鈥 farmer Reynaldo Ramos, 68, said as he walked through knee-deep water in Santa Rosa, about two hours鈥 drive north of Manila.
Military, government and volunteer rescue units equipped with rubber boats were trying to help residents in dozens of flooded villages, according to Nigel Lontoc, a rescue official.
鈥淭he floods are rising fast and some people are now on their rooftops,鈥 Lontoc said, but added there were not enough rescuers and he did not know how many have been saved. Many thousands of people may be stranded in those villages, although it was too early to determine an exact number.
Authorities confirmed at least 16 people had died because of the storm, and the death toll was expected to rise as full accounts from badly hit villages were gathered. The storm is also forecast to continue dumping heavy rains across the Philippines until tomorrow.
In Santa Rosa, water buffalo, pigs, goats, dogs, washing machines and furniture lined the sides of a storm-tossed highway, where about 200 residents had been seeking refuge from the floods since Sunday night.
Jun Paddayuman, 27, in shorts and a white singlet caked with mud up to his chest, pointed to his nearby house, where waters had risen to the roof. 鈥淭he waters arrived suddenly,鈥 he said.
When the waters first appeared in his house, Paddayuman said he waded to the highway, helping his eight months pregnant wife and three-year-old son to safety.
Wide expanses of rice paddies had disappeared under torrents of water throughout the towns and villages north of Manila because of runoff from torrential rain unleashed by Koppu on nearby mountain ranges.
Koppu initially hit fishing and farming communities on the east coast of Luzon with winds of 210 kilometers per hour, making it the Philippines鈥 second most powerful storm of the year. By early evening yesterday, it was on the far northwest coast of Luzon and nearly out into the South China Sea, the state weather service said.
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