Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Tropical storm kills 11 (Updated 8:45 p.m.)
MANILA -- Tropical Storm Pabuk triggered landslides that killed at least 11 people in the Philippines, then blew across southern Taiwan's tip Wednesday, disrupting power supplies to 3,000 households and forcing schools and offices to close.
China braced for the approaching Pabuk by recalling 266,000 fishermen and sailors along with 50,401 fishing vessels to land in eastern Fujian province Wednesday, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Pabuk bolstered monsoon rains across the Philippines, causing a landslide that buried seven houses and killed at least 10 people Monday in the southern gold mining town of Maco in Compostela Valley province, according to Glenn Rabonza, administrator of the Office of Civil Defense and government forecasters.
At least 80 residents were evacuated from their homes due to fears of more landslides in the hilly part of the country's northeast coast, brought more rains overnight, triggering another landslide that buried a house and killed a 9-year-old boy in the northern mountain resort city of Baguio at dawn Wednesday, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said.
In hilly Antipolo city east of the capital, Manila, policemen and firefighters pulled five children from the rubble of their house Wednesday after a concrete wall collapsed on it during a downpour, police Chief Superintendent Nicasio Radovan said.
The siblings, who had yelled for help from under the debris, were taken to a hospital with minor injuries, he said.
TV footage showed rescuers scrambling to lift or break a slab of concrete with sledgehammers to free one of the screaming children. (AP)
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