25 Killed in Philippines Tropical Storm
At least 25 people were killed and nine others went missing as a slow-moving tropical storm dumped enormous amounts of rain across the Philippines' main island, authorities said Wednesday.
Nock-ten, named after a Laotian bird, was expected to cause more damage in the mountainous northern areas of Luzon island on Wednesday night, while also bringing heavy rain to Manila, the state weather service said.
The latest death toll from Nock-ten, which struck the eastern Philippines on Tuesday, was 25, with many of the victims caught in floods or consumed by landslides, civil defense officials said.
Most of the missing were fishermen or sailors lost at sea, although a young boy also disappeared after being washed away in a flooded river, the officials said.
About 645,000 people were also forced to flee their flooded homes in the coastal provinces of Albay and Camarines Sur in the southeast of Luzon where the storm first made landfall, civil defense chief Benito Ramos said.
"Those two provinces are underwater," Ramos, the head of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said.
He said the government was waiting for the skies to clear and the seas to calm before sending emergency supplies by air and water to those provinces.
"We can't use the army trucks because the roads are flooded," he said.
The council said dozens of flights had been cancelled because of the storm.
Nock-ten had initially been expected to pass much closer to Manila, the nation's sprawling capital of 12 million people, and schools were closed across the city on Wednesday as it prepared for heavy rains.
But Ramos said Nock-ten was following an erratic course and the latest forecast showed Manila and other densely populated areas would be spared the worst of the storm.
Nevertheless, he warned that all areas within 500 kilometers (310 miles) of the eye of the storm, which includes Manila, should expect rain until it moved out to the South China Sea on Thursday.
And the new course would still mean about four million people in mountainous areas of northern Luzon would be under threat on Wednesday night.
State weather forecaster Juanito Galang told Agence France Presse that heavy rainfall on mountain slopes in the north could quickly turn into deadly flash floods or landslides.
"They're deadlier than ordinary floods because they occur suddenly and you are caught unaware," he told AFP.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino expressed frustration at people who lived in vulnerable areas, a problem seen across the country amid a booming population and chaotic urban planning that is typically dogged by corruption.
"(The government) put up markers saying it is dangerous for people to build houses there because they are prone to landslides. The problem is people don't pay attention and still build in these areas," Aquino told reporters.