Tropical storm Chanchu slammed into the Philippines overnight, causing flash floods and landslides that forced the evacuation of hundreds of villagers, disaster-relief officials said on Friday.
The storm, the first to hit the Philippines this year, left more than 6 000 people stranded in ports in the central Visayas and eastern Bicol regions after the coast guard suspended ferry operations.
Families from several villages in the town of Sogod, in the central island province of Southern Leyte, were also evacuated after heavy rains caused a landslide that cut off a highway, provincial governor Rosette Lerias told Agence France-Presse.
At least 11 villages with about 1 000 families in Sogod had been isolated, with one vital bridge also impassable, Lerias said.
Another 40 families in the town of Macrohon were also evacuated after heavy flooding, she said.
”It has been raining really hard, and we had about 130mm of rainfall yesterday [Thursday] alone,” Lerias said, adding that normal rainfall according to forecasters should be 550mm in a week.
”We are working very closely with the national government in Manila and we have all the supplies we need,” she said.
She said parts of Leyte, as well as the entire province of Albay in the Bicol region, were experiencing power outages.
The storm came almost three months after torrential rains caused the collapse of a mountainside that engulfed the Leyte village of Guinsaugon, leaving more than 1 000 people buried alive under a massive mudslide.
Nerry Amparo, head of operations in Manila’s Office of Civil Defence, said field reports coming in indicated zero casualties so far in the latest storm.
Storm warnings were hoisted in some 23 provinces and islands, including the capital Manila, where rain has fallen since Thursday.
The storm had slightly weakened as it made landfall overnight, and was expected to dump more rain in metropolitan Manila as its eye passes on Friday night, the weather bureau said.
Continuing with its north-west path with maximum sustained winds of 95kph, Chanchu was forecast to hit areas in the main island of Luzon on Saturday before subsiding on Monday.
Flag carrier Philippine Airlines and two other domestic carriers cancelled nine flights to the Visayas and Bicol, but the announcement came late and many passengers were stuck in the airport.
The weather bureau said residents along coastal areas should seek higher ground ”due to big waves generated by the storm” and those under the slopes to evacuate.
Noel Rosal, the mayor of Legaspi city in eastern Albay province, said some 200 families were also evacuated in the area after flash floods when power went down.
”But we have enough supplies and hopefully the weather will improve soon,” Rosal said on local television.
An average of 19 storms and typhoons strike the Philippines every year, killing hundreds of people through floods, landslides and other hazards induced by strong winds and heavy rain. — AFP
