Via Manila Standard Today.com: Clear skies reveal flood’s ugly scope. Excerpt:
The heavy monsoon rain in the past few days left 19 people dead and affected 2 million families, and the damage to crops, mostly rice, and public infrastructure amounted to P167.9 million, officials said on Thursday.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said the fatalities included nine people who were buried in a landslide in Quezon City, eight who drowned in the floods and two who died of electrocution.
The council said 89 cities and towns in Metro Manila, the Ilocos provinces, central and southern Luzon were severely flooded and several areas were placed under a state of calamity so that the government could impose price controls on prime commodities.
“The roads in some areas are like rivers. People have to use boats to move around. All the roads and alleys are flooded,” council chief Benito Ramos said.
In Malolos City in Bulacan, residents said they were still bracing from “back-floods” as the floodwaters from the neighboring provinces of Nueva Ecija and Pampanga were expected to surge into the low-lying areas of Calumpit and Hagonoy.
The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said at least 265 villages in 20 towns and three cities are still under water of up to six feet in some areas.
Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman appealed for volunteers to help repack relief at its National Resource Operations Center in Manila.
She said 294 evacuation centers remained open in the affected regions, which assisted almost 150,000 people and another 250,000 people were given relief outside.
The weather bureau said the country could expect good weather until the weekend as the rain-inducing southwest monsoon had weakened, but many areas were still under water because of the large volume of rainfall in the past three days.
“It will take a few more days to recover, assuming the rain stops now. But if more rain is dumped, then no one can tell,” Ramos said.
