Thousands flee as heavy rain hits Manila, nearby provinces
Many of the residents were evacuated from flood-prone villages in Marikina overnight, depriving them of sleep, says mayor; 6.6 earthquake shakes Batangas province in Southern Luzon
Thousands of residents fled flooded communities and swollen rivers in the Philippine capital and outlying provinces on Saturday ater days of torrential monsoon rain, which let at least one villager dead, officials said.
Officials said they struggled to open more emergency shelters in order to allow social distancing among the displaced residents and prevent evacuation camps from turning into epicentres of COVID-19 infections.
With more than 1.54 million cases and 27,131 deaths, the Philippines has the second highest number of COVID-19 infections and fatalities in Southeast Asia, ater Indonesia.
In the hard-hit city of Marikina in the capital region, nearly 15,000 residents were evacuated to safety overnight as waters rose alarmingly in a major river.
“This situation will be too difficult if there won’t be a permanent solution to flooding, especially now with the threat from the Delta variant,” Marikina Mayor Marcelino Teodoro told ABS CBN News, referring to the highly contagious COVID-19 viral strain that has been detected in the country. Many of the residents were evacuated from flood-prone villages in Marikina overnight, depriving them of sleep, said Teodoro. He blamed years of illegal logging in nearby mountains and heavy siltation in Marikina River for constant flooding in his city.
In the mountainous northern city of Baguio, a resident died on Friday aternoon ater the taxi she was riding in was hit by a falling tree, police said, adding two other people in the taxi were injured. The northern Philippines has been swamped by days of monsoon rain that flooded low-lying villages and set off minor landslides.
A cargo boat overturned ater being lashed by strong waves on Saturday close to a port in Pio Duran town in Albay province, southeast of Manila. Its 10 crewmen were rescued by police, firefighters and villagers, who used a long rope to pull the overturned boat closer to the coast, the coast guard said.
Coast guard personnel rescued several residents trapped in their houses by rising floodwaters on Friday in Naujan town in Mindoro Oriental province south of Manila. As they carried the villagers through waist-high waters, the emergency crew held on to a rope to prevent themselves from being swept away by the current.
Meanwhile, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake rumbled at dawn on Saturday through Batangas province in Southern Luzon, rousing thousands of residents from sleep and forcing them to rush outdoors but fortunately, no casualties were reported, according to local officials and the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).
Meanwhile, Renato Solidum, the Phivolcs chief, said the earthquake, which was of tectonic origin, struck at 4:49am on Saturday 16 kilometres southwest of the resort town of Calatagan, Batangas at a depth of 16 kilometres.
Solidum explained the tremor did not cause much damage at the surface because it happened deep off the coast of Calatagan. But he added that aside from Batangas, the earthquake was felt and even awakened residents from their sleep and rush outdoors in the province and neighbouring areas. For instance, residents of Lubang Island in Oriental Mindoro reported damages to their houses but no death or injuries were reported, according to Mayor Michael Orayani.
The earthquake was also felt in wide areas in Southern Luzon like Laguna, Quezon and Cavite as well as in Metro Manila where no casualties were also reported, the Office of Civil Defence said.
In a related development, Mark Timbal, the spokesman of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRM), reported that officials ordered the mandatory evacuation of more than 14,000 people from danger areas prone to floods and landslides caused by heavy rain that pummeled wide areas of Luzon.
Loriedin dela Cruz, a specialist at the staterun weather bureau, said the rain was brought by the southwest monsoon and enhanced by the typhoon “In-fa” (local name Fabian) which entered the country last week.