A boy plays with mud as residents begin cleaning up their homes in Cabanatuan, northern Philippines
A storm finally blew away from the main northern Philippine island yesterday, after leaving at least 20 dead over the weekend and forcing 70,000 villagers into emergency shelters and destroying rice fields ready for harvest.
Disaster-response agencies said there was still a danger that rains dumped by Tropical Storm Koppu in mountain areas may flood rivers and put hundreds of downstream villages at risk.
Koppu was a typhoon when it blew ashore on Sunday, but it has weakened into a storm and was blowing yesterday over the Luzon Strait with winds of 85 kilometers per hour. It was expected to weaken further, according to the government’s weather bureau.
The sun briefly shone in flood-hit northern provinces, where villagers started to shovel away thick mud that had covered homes, roads and farmlands in the country’s main rice- and vegetable-growing region.
At least 20 people were killed, mostly due to from drowning, landslides, fallen trees and collapsed walls. Several people were reported missing and more than 290,000 were affected by the storm, including 70,500 who fled to evacuation centers.
President Benigno Aquino III, who flew to hard-hit Nueva Ecija province on Monday to check on the flooding and distribute food packs, said there were still worries that up to 800 villages could be threatened if rivers become overwhelmed by rainwater flowing down from northern mountain provinces.
Koppu, Japanese for “cup,” is the 12th storm this year to batter the Philippines, one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries. In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan leveled entire towns in the central Philippines, leaving more than 7,300 people dead or missing. Bullit Marquez, Cabanatuan, AP
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