Thousands flee Philippine floodwaters

MANILA, Philippines — Thousands of residents fled flooded communities and swollen rivers in the Philippine capital and outlying provinces Saturday after days of torrential monsoon rains that left at least one villager dead, officials said.

Officials said they struggled to open more emergency shelters to allow social distancing among the displaced residents and prevent evacuation camps from turning into epicenters of covid-19 infections. 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 Friday afternoon after the taxi she was riding in was hit by a falling tree, police said, adding that two other people in the taxi were injured.

Typhoon In-fa, which has churned off the country’s eastern coast and dumped rain on Taiwan before blowing toward China, intensified the seasonal downpours, forecasters said.