MANILA, 26 August 2004 — At least six people, including three children, perished yesterday as heavy rains spawned by two typhoons caused widespread flooding in the northern Philippines, officials said.
A landslide buried at least one house in the town of San Mateo, Rizal, east of Manila, leaving a four year-old boy missing and presumed dead, civil defense officials said.
“According to our field reports, the boy was last seen being swept away by the flash floods,” an OCD advisory said. “He has not been found yet.”
Four bodies were recovered, including those of two girls who drowned and two men who were earlier reported missing after falling into a swollen creek in suburban Quezon City. One of the dead girls was among six children who became trapped in a flooded house, rescue officials said.
And in the northern town of Magsingal in Ilocos Sur province, a car smashed into a bus after losing traction on a rain-slicked highway, killing the car driver and his three passengers, police said. Eight bus passengers were also hurt.
Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes after overnight rains from typhoon Aere and super-typhoon Chaba swamped Manila and its suburbs.
Ecstatic children, however, swam in the same waist-deep floodwaters that brought public transport to a standstill, stranding commuters across the national capital.
Many schools were forced to declare holidays and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo sent all government workers home except those working for emergency services. Military trucks deployed to pick up stranded commuters, while rubber boats and helicopters were sent to areas that could not be reached by road. Several international and domestic flights were also cancelled due to the bad weather, affecting about 1,700 passengers, according to Alfonso Cusi, general manager of Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Cusi said among the cancelled flights were those headed for Taiwan and the northern Philippine island of Batanes. (Additional input from agencies)
