A storm has unleashed pounding rains that flooded many areas in the northern Philippines, leaving at least nine people dead.
The deluge has prompted authorities to suspend classes and government work in the capital region and to warn thousands of residents to prepare to evacuate from flood-prone villages along a key river.
On Monday, Tropical Storm Yagi was blowing 71 miles north-east of Infanta town in Quezon province, south-east of Manila, with sustained winds of up to 47mph and gusts of up to 56mph, according to the weather bureau.
The storm, locally called Enteng, was moving north-westward at 9mph near the eastern coast of the main northern region of Luzon, where the weather bureau warned of possible flash floods and landslides in mountainous provinces.
A landslide hit two small shanties on a hillside in Antipolo city on Monday in Rizal province just to the west of the capital, Manila, killing at least three people, including a pregnant woman, disaster-mitigation officer Enrilito Bernardo Jr said.
Four other villagers drowned in swollen creeks, he added.
National police spokesperson Col Jean Fajardo told reporters that two other people died and 10 others were injured in landslides set off by the storm in the central Philippines.
Two residents died in stormy weather in Naga city in eastern Camarines Sur province, where floodwaters swamped several communities, police said. Authorities are verifying if these deaths, including one caused by electrocution, were weather-related.
Storm warnings were raised in a large part of Luzon, the country’s most populous region, including in metropolitan Manila, where schools at all levels and most government work were suspended due to the stormy weather.
Along the crowded banks of Marikina River in the eastern fringes of the capital, a siren was sounded in the morning to warn thousands of residents to brace for evacuation in case the river water continues to rise and overflows due to heavy rains.
In Northern Samar province, coast guard personnel used rubber boats and rope to evacuate 40 villagers on Sunday in two villages that were engulfed in waist- to chest-high floods.
Sea travel was temporarily halted in several ports affected by the storm, stranding about 2,200 ferry passengers and cargo workers, and several dozen domestic flights were suspended due to the stormy weather.
Downpours have also caused water to rise to near-spilling level in Ipo dam in Bulacan province, north of Manila, prompting authorities to schedule a release of a minimal amount of water later on Monday that they say would not endanger villages downstream.
About 20 typhoons and storms batter the Philippines each year. The archipelago lies in the Pacific Ring of Fire, a region along most of the Pacific Ocean rim where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur, making the south-east Asian nation one of the world’s most disaster-prone.
In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest recorded tropical cyclones in the world, left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, flattened entire villages, swept ships inland and displaced more than five million people in the central Philippines.
