At least four people were killed and tens of thousands of people fled their homes Friday as a tropical storm triggered widespread floods in the Philippine capital and northern provinces, officials said.
School classes and government work were suspended in Manila and 15 provinces, while the stock market was closed.
More than 80 domestic and international flights were either cancelled or diverted to land outside Manila amid the heavy rains.
The casualties included a 2-year-old girl who drowned as her family was preparing to evacuate their home in the village of Bagong Silang in the Manila suburban city of Quezon, the Office of Civil Defence said.
An elderly woman died after she hit her head on a rock when she slipped at a creek in Rodriguez town in Rizal province, just east of Manila, the provincial disaster relief agency said.
Two men also drowned in the cities of Quezon and Caloocan, the Red Cross said.
Nearly half a million people were affected by the floods, including more than 40,000 staying in emergency shelters in schools, churches or public gymnasiums, the Office of Civil Defence said.
The displaced residents were evacuated on rubber boats, while some had to wade through chest-deep brown water while holding on to ropes. Others used makeshift rafts or plastic containers to keep them afloat.
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong had maximum winds of 85 kilometres per hour (kph) and gusts of up to 100 kph as it swept through the northern Philippines.
Heavy rains hit Manila and the northern provinces overnight, causing floods that reached more than 1.5 metres in some areas, the weather bureau said.
Some dams have already released water, exacerbating the floods in surrounding areas, while many rivers were swollen, it added.
In some parts of Manila, the floodwaters submerged parked vehicles, while at least one wall collapsed and crashed on cars.
Amid warnings that the heavy rains would persist overnight, some residents have called for rescue through radio and social media.
“It’s starting to get dark and my husband is bedridden,” Letty Madrid, a resident of Cainta City in Rizal province, just east of Manila, told Manila radio station DZMM. “Please send help quickly.”
An elderly woman from the same city also called the radio station asking for help: “I’m a cancer patient and we’re five women in the house. The water is already at the second floor of our house.”
GNA
