MANILA -- Torrential monsoon rains worsened by Tropical Storm Mario (Fung-Wong) flooded large swathes of Metro Manila and nearby provinces Friday, leaving at least three people dead and displacing tens of thousands just days after the region was drenched by a typhoon.
Authorities said more than 470,000 residents of Metro Manila and other provinces were affected in severely inundated communities. At least 37,000 people in the capital were displaced in one of the worst floods in the sprawling metropolis of 12 million in recent years.
Over 2,700 people in nearby provinces were also displaced by the floods, said Civil Defense chief Alex Pama.
The Philippine Red Cross said a man drowned in Caloocan City and the Office of Civil Defense reported that a two-year-old girl identified as Althea Gaviola drowned in Bagong Silang, Quezon City.
A radio report quoting local officials in Rizal province said the body of a 68-year-old woman was recovered after she was swept away by floodwaters.
In some areas, water engulfed the first floor of homes, sending residents scrambling to upper floors and onto roofs.
Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines Director Captain John Andrews said that as of 8 a.m. Friday, only big aircrafts were allowed to take-off and land at the runway of Ninoy Aquino International Airport due to radar problem.
The system was restored at 11:23 a.m. but various airline companies opted to suspend some of their flights for safety. [READ: Flights, sea travel cancelled due to ‘Mario’]
rThe widespread floods also caused traffic gridlock across the metropolis.
Pama warned that even if the rain stopped Friday night, "it's possible that the waters from the mountain would start coming down to our rivers" and cause more flooding.
Water from a dam just north of the capital also started to spill into a river that runs through some densely populated areas, threatening to inundate more villages, officials said.
Government forecasters said nearly a month's worth of rain fell overnight as people slept, trapping many in their flooded homes.
More than 26,000 people have been evacuated from high-risk communities around the volcano and there were concerns that rain could cause deadly volcanic mudflows. Clouds shrouded the peak of the 2,640-meter (8,712-foot) mountain but it was mostly sunny around the volcano on Friday.
Meteorologist Aldczar Aurelio said Tropical Storm Mario, which made landfall in northern Cagayan province with top winds of 100 kilometers (62.5 miles) per hour, enhanced the seasonal southwest monsoon winds and clouds from the Indian Ocean and Australia and dumped heavy rain over the capital area.
He said 268 millimeters (10.5 inches) of rain fell on Manila within a 24-hour period ending early Friday. The volume was more than half the amount of rainfall that caused massive flooding in the capital in 2009, the worst in 40 years.
Government offices in Metro Manila and 15 provinces were closed and the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) suspended trading.
The PSE, in an advisory, said there was no trading Friday and no clearing and settlement at the Securities Clearing Corporation of the Philippines "due to the suspension of clearing and settlement operations in the Philippine banking system."
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) also suspended its clearing operations. Under BSP guidelines, clearing operations are suspended if work suspension is announced before 9 a.m.
Malacañang also declared Friday suspension of classes in Metro Manila and 16 other nearby provinces due to heavy rains brought by Tropical Storm Mario.
Classes were suspended in all levels of both public and private schools in Metro Manila, Zambales, Bataan, Pampanga, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, Rizal, Cavite, Batangas, Laguna, Quezon (including Polilio Island), Mindoro provinces, Camarines Norte, Marinduque, and Pangasinan.
Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada said residents of a number of slum communities were evacuated to safety.
"Our anti-flood infrastructure has been neglected for a long time," Estrada said. "You go abroad and you see big houses of the rich along clean rivers. But here, the riverbanks teem with squatter colonies, which don't have septic tanks and treat the river like a garbage can."
Zharina Biong, an employee of the disaster management unit of Marikina City, part of Metro Manila, said more than 27,000 people, most of them living near the swollen Marikina River, were evacuated.
Marikina City, as well as Cainta in Rizal and Dagupan City in Pangasinan were placed under a state of calamity on Friday afternoon.
Tropical Storm Mario was expected to leave Philippine territory by Sunday and make a sharp turn northward toward Taiwan and southern Japan.
It slightly slowed down Friday night while moving over the Luzon Strait, said the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).
As of 10 p.m., the tropical storm was located at 91 kilometers northwest of Laoag City in Ilocos Norte, with maximum sustained winds of 75 kilometers per hour (kph) near its center and gustiness of up to 90 kph.
Pagasa forecast it to move north at 17 kph.
Public storm warning signal number 2 remained hoisted Friday over Calayan and Babuyan Group of Islands, Batanes Group of Islands, Apayao and Ilocos Norte, while signal number 1 was raised over Cagayan, Kalinga, Abra and Ilocos Sur.
Last week, Typhoon Luis (Kalmaegi) hit the same northern Philippine region, leaving eight people dead and displacing over 366,000. (AP/Sunnex)