Thursday, August 26, 2004 Rains, floods hit metro; 8 feared dead
MANILA -- Eight people were feared dead after torrential rains, reportedly the highest volume recorded so far this year, swamped Manila and nearby areas, triggering floods, a landslide in the suburb, and a road crash.
The landslide buried at least one house in the town of San Mateo east of Manila, leaving a four-year-old boy missing and presumed dead, civil defense official Elena Aldea told local radio. A one-year-old girl drowned in a flood in the same town.
In Novaliches, two youngsters also drowned.
In the northern town of Magsingal, a car smashed into a bus after losing traction on a rain-slicked highway, killing the car driver and his three passengers, police said.
Eight bus passengers were also hurt.
Parts of the capital Manila were under up to three feet of water from heavy rains caused by typhoon Aere and super-typhoon Chaba, not in the country's area of responsibility but spotted near Batanes province, displacing several hundred families and paralyzing traffic.
Bad weather and floods also prompted the Department of Education (DepEd) to suspend classes in the elementary and high school levels
Classes in the high school and elementary levels were suspended, some local and international flights were cancelled, and work
Also because of the bad weather, the Department of Education (DepEd) suspended classes in the elementary and high school levels, several private companies sent their workers home, while some local and international flights were cancelled.
President Arroyo also allowed government workers, except those working for emergency services, to go home early.
Military trucks deployed to pick up stranded commuters, while rubber boats and helicopters were sent to areas that could not be reached by road, the civil defense office said.
The weather bureau said Aere and Chaba, both churning off the northeast coast of the main island of Luzon, worsened the seasonal southwest monsoons.
Heavy rains started pouring at 1 a.m. Wednesday and continued until the afternoon.
Weathermen said they recorded 39 milliliters (ml) of rain per hour in Metro Manila, making it the highest rainfall level recorded in the National Capital Region (NCR) so far this year.
The average rainfall volume in NCR is 7.5 ml per hour.
A report from the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) identified the four-year-old fatality in a landslide that hit a subdivision in Barangay Silangan, San Mateo, Rizal, as Jeremy Laurio of Sierra Monte subdivision.
Several houses were also destroyed in the landslide.
Members of the Rizal provincial search and rescue team were able to evacuate people in the area before the landslide took place.
The local government of San Mateo brought the displaced families to the evacuation centers situated near the municipal hall.
The identities of the other victims were unavailable.
Monsoon rains flooded large areas of Metro Manila and nearby provinces. Major thoroughfares like Tayuman Street, Espana Road, Blumentritt Street, Quezon Boulevard, Taft and Recto Avenues in Manila; and stretches of Quezon, East, Araneta, Commonwealth, E. Rodriguez, Ramon Magsaysay, Agham and Kaingin Bukid in Quezon City were submerged in flood.
In some places, the flood was chest deep.
Heavy flooding also hit McArthur Highway and Rizal Avenues in Caloocan City; M.H. del Pilar Street, Espirito Sanchez Street and five barangays in Malabon City; and huge areas of Navotas City, Marikina City, Mandaluyong City and Valenzuela.
Some barangays in Cainta and Taytay, Rizal and in Malolos and Bocaue, Bulacan were also submerged in floodwaters. (Sunnex Luzon/JFF/With AFP)
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