MANILA: Philippine authorities braced on Tuesday for another storm as the toll from rain and floods from a weekend typhoon, now bearing down on Vietnam, rose to 246 dead while damages climbed to nearly $100 million.
Weather forecasters said a new storm forming in the Pacific Ocean was likely to enter Philippine waters on Thursday and make landfall later in the week on the northern island of Luzon, just like Saturday’s Typhoon Ketsana.
Ketsana dumped more than a month’s worth of average rainfall on Manila and surrounding areas in one 24-hour period. About 80 percent of the city of 15 million was flooded.
The Philippine government has come in for scathing criticism for its response to the disaster, with many calling it inadequate and delayed.
Authorities estimated damage from the storm so far at around 4.69 billion pesos ($98.5 million). More than 1.9 million people were affected and 375,000 had abandoned their homes and taken refuge in evacuation centers.
More than 3,000 houses were either damaged or destroyed.
The death toll could rise further once reports come in from remote areas. The storm hit metropolitan Manila and 12 provinces. Dozens remained missing and feared dead, disaster officials said.
“For casualties, the increase will be not as great, but the damage figures may increase,” Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro told a news conference on Tuesday.
“Even opportunity loss of revenues for establishments, that alone would amount to hundreds of millions at least per day.”
Ketsana was to make landfall in central Vietnam later on Tuesday, where authorities have ordered the evacuation of at least 170,000 people.
Hundreds of soldiers were helping evacuate people and with storm preparations. Ships have been told to take shelter in Danang. Vietnam Airlines has canceled all fights to the port city since Monday and schools in several coastal provinces were closed.
In the Philippines, authorities released water from two dams north of Manila, but stressed it was being done carefully to prevent any recurrence of floods.
“Angat opened their gates slowly just to keep it at spilling level and the effect would be minimal,” Teodoro said, adding the another dam in Nueva Ecija province also opened its gates to release water.
Communist rebels announced a unilateral ceasefire with government forces and ordered cadres to help in flood relief operations.
Private citizens and volunteer groups were collecting relief goods — mostly clothes, drinking water and medicines — and distributing them to victims.
Many people have thrown open their homes to those who were forced to abandon theirs.
