Heavy Rain Kills at Least 16 in the Philippines as Floods Swamp Manila
A landslide buried three houses in the mountain resort of Baguio as nine days of rain, worsened by tropical storms, triggered floods and landslides across the northern Philippines.
Nine straight days of heavy rain have killed at least 16 people across the northern Philippines, rescuers said Monday, as floodwaters swamped streets in the capital and landslides buried homes in a mountain resort town.
The rain, worsened by tropical storms passing near the country, dumped more than a month's worth of water on some areas in just over a week, according to Channel NewsAsia. Schools and government offices across the main island of Luzon shut down, and parts of Manila flooded.
The deadliest single incident happened in Baguio, a mountain resort about four hours north of Manila. A rain-soaked hillside collapsed onto three houses, killing seven people, according to Esther Banawe, a city rescue official who spoke to the AFP news agency. Three more people remained missing as of Monday. "Rescue efforts are continuing, but they are doing it manually because of the heavy rain," Banawe said, adding that a safety officer was overseeing the search because of the risk of another landslide.
State weather forecaster Dan Villamil said Baguio had already received 47 percent more rain than it typically gets in an entire month. "The rainfall recorded for Aug 1-9 was highest in Baguio, with an accumulated 1,413.2mm," he said, compared with a typical August total of 963.2 millimeters for the city. Villamil said parts of Metro Manila had already recorded rain equal to about 90 percent of a typical August.
Elsewhere on Luzon, landslides killed six more people, according to a tally from the country's civil defense office. One person drowned, one was struck by a falling tree, and one was electrocuted, the office said.
Floodwaters start to recede
Heavy rain kept falling into Monday evening, but Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon told reporters that floodwaters were beginning to go down. "Our interventions are continuing, but we really need to fix the years and decades' worth of faulty flood mitigation interventions," Dizon said. He was referring to a scandal over fake flood-control projects that officials say has cost taxpayers billions of dollars.
A country built for storms
The Philippines sits directly in the path of the Pacific cyclone belt and is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons a year, according to Channel NewsAsia. Millions of people live in areas prone to flooding and landslides. Scientists say climate change driven by human activity is making extreme weather events more frequent, longer lasting, and more intense.
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