Thursday, October 8, 2009

Typhoon Ketsana and Typhoon Parmma sent storms and flooding devastating Philipina.


Benguet province had already been badly hit by storms


Rescue teams have been stretched by two massive storms in quick succession


Large areas of some provinces have been affected by flooding


People wade in the chest deep floodwater in suburban Cainta east of Manila in the Philippines


Dozens of towns have been turned into vast lakes


A NASA satelite image shows Typhoon Parma off the Philippine Islands


Map of the Philippines locating the areas most affected by floods and landslides caused by Typhoon Parma


People struggle through a flooded street in the town of Santa Cruz, south of Manila.


Citizens struggle with flood damage


Large areas of some provinces have been affected by flooding.Coffin are transported using sampan.

----


---


--


----

At least 32 bodies have been retrieved and more were feared to have been buried alive as back-to-back storms triggered massive landslides in northern Philippines, local media reported Friday.Local television channel ANC reported that 32 bodies were recovered in the mountainous Benguet province, which is suffering continuous rains brought by the tropical depression Parma.

The government's disasters relief agency on Friday morning reported that at least 25 people were confirmed dead across the northern and central Luzon, with 39 others still missing.

Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Torres at the National Disaster Coordinating Council said the government has no official report indicating the missing were already dead.

"But if we sum it up, this will be over 50," Torres said.

Parma, initially a typhoon, stalled in northern Philippines for days as high air pressure over the South China Sea prevented it from moving further west. Parts of the coastal Pangasinan province were reported to be submerged in floodwaters.

The Philippines is still reeling from the devastation of tropical storm Ketsana, which poured epic rainfall to the national capital region and surrounding areas, leaving 300 people dead and nearly 40 others missing.

Click to Read More!-Click to Read More!-Click to Read More!-Click to Read More!




Dozens of landslides in the rain-soaked mountains of the northern Philippines have killed an estimated 100 people, a disaster relief official said.

Olive Luces, civil defence director for the Cordillera mountain region, said four major mudslides struck, burying almost an entire village in La Trinidad town in Benguet province.

Fresh flooding also hit about 30 towns in Pangasinan province, sending residents fleeing to rooftops and scrambling for safety after dams released excess water from recent heavy rains.

The Philippines has been hit by two major storms in the past two weeks. Floods and landslides have already left some 300 others dead.

Landslides unleashed by tropical depression Parma across the Philippine province of Benguet have killed at least 122 people and left 31 missing, officials said Friday.Four people had been found alive in debris and at least 22 had been injured by landslides that started Thursday afternoon and continued all night, affecting several municipalities, said Elmer Foria, police senior superintendent.

Parma, which had been downgraded from a typhoon, poured more rain onto sodden and already weakened ground.

Flooding had inundated 32 towns and two cities, Dagupan and Urdaneta, according to Rocky Baraan, provincial administrator of Pangasinan. Some 35,000 people had fled to evacuation centers, the official Philippines News Agency reported, citing the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council.

The worst-hit areas included Bayambang, Alcala and Basista, the news agency reported.

People clambered onto rooftops as floodwaters rose, calling and texting for help. Rescue trucks were hampered by floodwaters that reach the roofs of single-story houses, Baraan said. About 16 rubber rescue boats had been deployed.

The U.S. Navy was expected to join rescue operations in Pangasinan, according to the agency.

In the last several days, water has become the Philippines' biggest enemy, as Parma, locally known as "Pepeng," dumped as much as 36 inches (91.4 centimeters) of rain in some parts of the nation of islands, compounding misery in areas already flooded by earlier storm Ketsana.

Parma was forecast to have winds of no greater than 39 mph (63 kph) by Friday. Fresh floods have covered large areas of the northern Philippines after days of heavy rain from the remnants of Typhoon Parma.

The flooding and landslides in the northern part of the main island of Luzon have left around 100 people dead in the past week, officials said on Friday.

Tens of thousands have been evacuated from affected areas and thousands more remain trapped by high waters.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Senator Richard Gordon, the head of the Philippine Red Cross, dozens of provinces had been "totally inundated" by floods.

He said Red Cross boats had evacuated hundreds of families and more boats and relief workers were due to arrive in the region later on Friday.

The flooding was made worse after five dams began releasing excess water on Thursday from rivers and reservoirs that had swelled from the unceasing rain brought by Parma.

The opening of the dams flooded areas downstream, with dozens of towns and farmlands transformed into vast lakes.Al Jazeera's Marga Ortigas, reporting from Manila, said emergency services, which are already struggling to handle the aftermath of Typhoon Ketsana which hit late last month, have now been stretched even further by the fresh flooding.

Typhoon Parma first hit the Philippines last Saturday and has since weakened into a tropical depression but continues to linger around the region.



Rescue officials in the mountainous Benguet province said on Friday that at least 69 people were killed in landslides across five districts.

At least 25 people had been reported killed earlier, the National Disaster Co-ordinating Council (NDCC) said.

Between 60 to 80 per cent of the coastal province of Pangasinan has been flooded and 30,000 people evacuated, said Lieutenant-Colonel Ernesto Torres at the NDCC.

Thousands of people spent the night on rooftops or sought refuge on higher ground and the bad weather hampered rescue efforts.

Rescue calls

Amado Espino, the governor of Pangasinan province, told local radio that rescue teams were having difficulty reaching those stranded because of the strong currents and heavy rain.

Marlyn Premicias, the province's vice-governor, said she started getting frantic text messages from residents late on Thursday asking to be rescued after the San Roque dam released water along the Agno river, inundating 30 out of 46 townships in the coastal province.

In Nueva Ecija province to the east, 23 of 32 towns and cities were hit by floods, local officials said.

Roads were cut off heading north from the capital, Manila, where residents are still trying to pick up the pieces from Typhoon Ketsana.

That storm killed at least 337 people, flooded large areas in and around the capital and forced nearly half a million from their homes last week.

In addition the storm caused millions of dollars of in damage to crops, roads, bridges and schools.

UN appeal

The provincial governor of Pangasinan province, Amado Espino, told reporters that water released by the San Roque dam had flooded towns.

"The dam is supposed to be for flood control but now it is so filled it is like it is not there. The water just rushes right through from the mountains to Pangasinan."

Mr Espino said strong currents and continuing rain were making it hard to reach and rescue people in flooded areas.

The province's Vice Governor, Marlyn Premicias, told the Associated Press she had been receiving text messages from people needing to be rescued.

"Eastern Pangasinan has become one big river," she said.

Lt Col Ernesto Torres of the NDCC told Reuters news agency that 30,000 people had been evacuated in the province and 60-80% of the land was flooded.

The UN earlier appealed for $74m (£47m) to help victims of storms in the Philippines.

It says about 500,000 people have fled their homes and are still living in emergency shelters and has warned of an urgent need for food, water, sanitation facilities, emergency shelter and health care provisions.

Gwendolyn Pang of the Philippine National Red Cross told the BBC that getting aid to those in need was difficult as travelling by land was often impossible.

"Most of the areas are impassable because of landslides and because of the flood water, so we need to airlift relief food and also do rescues by airlift," she said.

Typhoon Ketsana hit Manila and surrounding areas on 26 September, causing the worst flooding in the capital in more than four decades.

Eight days later, Parma blew across the country's mountainous north, bringing more rain. Meteorologists say the storm is still lingering off the coast of the Philippines



RELATED POSTS : -

0 comments:

Today Top Recent Posts Here.


Blogger Widgets
Related Posts with Thumbnails

Entertainment News