AP Photo/Aaron Favila
Residents cross a flooded road in Marikina City, east of Manila, Philippines, on Wednesday Aug. 8, 2012.
MANILA, Philippines — Widespread
flooding that killed at least 23 people, battered a million others and
paralyzed the Philippine capital briefly eased Wednesday, allowing
rescuers on rubber boats to reach a large number of distressed residents
still marooned in submerged villages.
REUTERS/Cheryl Ravelo
Residents wade through floodwater to return to their submerged
houses in Marikina City Metro Manila August 8, 2012.
Government forecasters said the monsoon rains that overflowed major
dams and rivers crisscrossing Manila and surrounding provinces would
gradually abate and lead to sunny weather later this week after 12 days
of relentless downpours. The deluge that began late Sunday was the worst
since 2009, when hundreds died in rampaging flash floods.
“We’re still on a rescue mode,” said Benito Ramos, who heads the
government’s main disaster-response agency. “Floods are receding in many
areas but people are still trapped on their roofs.”
Ramos said the massive flooding turned half of Manila into “a water
world” on Monday evening and into Tuesday. At least 23 died, including
nine in a landslide in a hillside slum in suburban Quezon City and
several others who drowned in outlying provinces.
TED ALJIBE/AFP/GettyImages
A
resident wades along a flooded street in suburban
Manila on August 8,
2012, as the capital city battled deadly
floods for a second day.
More than 1.2 million people were affected by the deluge, including
783,000 who fled from their inundated homes. With the receding
floodwaters, some of the displaced have started returning to their homes
but others stayed put despite the hard conditions in emergency shelters
as rain clouds again darkened the sky Wednesday afternoon.
Carmen Empesao said she panicked and left with her three
grandchildren when waist-deep floodwaters swamped her home in the
hard-hit city of Marikina.
“We fled without any food and the clothes we managed to grab were wet
and cannot be worn,” Empesao, 60, told The Associated Press in an
evacuation centre teeming with 3,000 displaced.
JAY DIRECTO/AFP/GettyImages
Residents wade through floodwaters north of Manila on
August 8, 2012.
Rescue efforts shifted into high gear Wednesday, with more than 130
emergency crewmen from two provinces reaching the capital city of 12
million people to help their overwhelmed teams, including police and
soldiers. Rescuers used rubber boats and ropes to navigate flooded
streets where many people climbed on rooftops to escape neck-deep
waters.
Food and drinking water were in short supply because of impassable
roads. President Benigno Aquino III distributed food packs in flood-hit
communities south of Manila.
dnd/AFP/GettyImages
This
handout photo taken on August 8, 2012 and released by the
Department of
National Defense (DND) shows an aerial shot o
f the overflowing
Marikina
river in suburban Manila.
Ramos said he was overwhelmed by the extent of the flooding when he
flew aboard a helicopter with Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin for an
inspection Wednesday, although he added that water in many areas was
beginning to recede.
“In some areas, I could not tell the sea from the flooded villages,” he told The AP.
AP Photo/Aaron Favila
People cross a flooded area in Marikina City, east of Manila,
Philippines, on Wednesday Aug. 8, 2012.
Manila was drenched with more than half of a month’s worth of rain in
just 24 hours starting Monday. A typhoon in eastern China that has
helped intensify the southwest monsoon in the Philippines blew further
into the Chinese mainland, prompting Filipino forecasters to predict
better weather the rest of the week.
“We may see the sun tomorrow,” government forecaster Glaiza Escullar
said. She added that heavy but brief downpours may still sporadically
drench the coastal capital.
Although heavy rains may ease, she warned that up to three storms or typhoons were expected to lash the country this month.
TED ALJIBE/AFP/GettyImages
Residents
climb onto the roof of their house to check their
belongings after they
evacuated a day earlier due to severe
floodings in suburban
Manila on
August 8, 2012, as the capital city battled deadly
floods for a second
day.
At the height of the flooding, many residents called radio and TV
stations desperately asking to be rescued. TV footage showed rescuers
dangling on ropes to bring children and other residents to safety from a
rooftop.
Vehicles and even heavy trucks struggled to navigate water-clogged
roads, where hundreds of thousands of commuters were stranded.
JAY DIRECTO/AFP/GettyImages
A
group of Philippine farm workers huddle beneath a bridge
to seek
shelter from rains and rising floodwaters north of
Manila on August 8,
2012.
The government suspended work and classes Tuesday but most offices
opened Wednesday. Traffic was still light as workers began clearing
roads of debris, trash and fallen trees.
In 2009, massive flooding spawned by a typhoon devastated Manila and surrounding areas, killing hundreds.
TED ALJIBE/AFP/GettyImages
Flood
affected residents rest at a temporary shelter inside a
church in
suburban Manila on August 8, 2012, as the capital
city battled deadly
floods for a second day.
TED ALJIBE/AFP/GettyImages
Residents
commute along a flooded street in suburban
Manila on August 8, 2012, as
the capital city battled deadly
floods for a second day.
TED ALJIBE/AFP/GettyImages
A
child, one of the thousands of residents affected by the severe
floodings, sleeps next to the family's pet dog at a temporary
evacuation
center
inside a church in suburban Manila on August 8, 2012, as the
capital city battled
deadly floods for a second day.
TED ALJIBE/AFP/GettyImages
Affected
residents from severe floodings rest at an
evacuation center inside a
church in suburban Manila
on August 8, 2012, as the capital city battled
deadly
loods for a second day.
AP Photo/Aaron Favila
Evacuees
stay inside a Catholic church converted into a
temporary evacuation
center in Quezon City, north of
Manila, Philippines, on
Wednesday Aug.
8, 2012.
REUTERS/Erik De Castro
Residents
look out from the rooftops and windows of houses
to people gathering
recyclable materials on floodwaters in
Quezon city, Metro
Manila August
8, 2012.
AP Photo/Aaron Favila
A
man carries puppies back inside their house as other dogs
stay on the
roof at a flooded area in Marikina City, east of
Manila, Philippines,
Wednesday Aug. 8, 2012.
REUTERS/Cheryl Ravelo
A resident brings down his dogs from his roof at a flooded
area in Marikina City Metro Manila August 8, 2012.
dnd/AFP/GettyImages
This
handout photo taken on August 8, 2012 and released by the
Department of
National Defense (DND) shows an aerial shot of
flooding around Bulacan,
north of Manila.
REUTERS/Erik De Castro
A resident sits on the window of a house swamped with floodwaters
in Quezon city, Metro Manila August 8, 2012.
AP Photo/Aaron Favila
Residents
negotiate a flooded street as it slowly inches
down in Marikina City,
east of Manila, Philippines,
Wednesday Aug. 8, 2012.
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