Typhoon Vamco causes severe destruction in Philippines

Manila, Philippines: The third storm to hit the storm-battered Philippines in as many weeks has created extreme flooding in the capital Manila, confining people on rooftops and killing at least two people in a different part of the Southeast Asian archipelago.

Typhoon Vamco carried gusts of up to 155 kilometres per hour (96 miles per hour) as it mopped across the country’s most oversized island of Luzon after making landfall late on Thursday.

Heavy rainfall completely shut down Manila, the capital of 12 million people, and encompassing areas, transforming streets into rivers as officials notified of landslides and possibly destructive storm waves along the coast.

“A lot of sites are swamped. Many people are screaming for help,” stated Rouel Santos, 53, a retired emergency officer in Rizal province, close to the capital.

Santos told the flooding caused by storm Vamco carried back memories of the destructive Typhoon Ketsana, well-known in the Philippines as Tropical Storm Ondoy, that hit in 2009 and took hundreds of lives.

The Philippine military, police and red cross and other rescuers used small boats and rafts to reach out to families stranded in their homes in Marikina City, one of the worst-hit neighbourhoods of the capital, where the water in some places was up to shoulder height.

Schools have remained closed since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March, are being used as emergency shelters along with gymnasiums. Nearly 180,000 people were in evacuation centres, officials stated.

The weather service has advised of life-threatening storm waves along with parts of the coast, including in Manila, that could flood low-lying regions.

Flood warnings were declared for a number of towns north of the capital as authorities cleared water from fast-filling dams.

President Rodrigo Duterte announced in a statement the government was “on top of the condition”, promising goods, relief funds, and shelter for victims as well as post-disaster counselling.

The Philippines is banged by an aggregate of 20 storms and typhoons every year, which typically wipe out crops, houses and infrastructure in already poverty-stricken areas.