At least 300,000 people are left homeless amid worst storm in decades
Alastair McIndoe, Straits Times 28 Sep 09;
MANILA: Rescuers in helicopters and boats worked to pluck residents marooned by flooding in the worst storm to hit Manila and surrounding regions in decades, leaving at least 70 dead and thousands homeless.
The Philippine government appealed for international aid yesterday after declaring a state of calamity in the capital and 27 storm-hit provinces after tropical storm Ketsana struck on Saturday.
At least 300,000 people were left homeless while hundreds remained trapped on rooftops.
Filipinos long used to annual storms and flooding admitted they had never seen anything like it.
Television footage showed residents stranded on rooftops surrounded by a sea of mud-brown flood water waiting for help. Those fleeing to higher ground waded through chest-high water with young children or luggage hoisted above their heads.
At its height, raging flood water swept away cars, houses and other structures. According to the weather bureau, more rain fell during the nine-hour deluge than is usual in a month.
While the flood water began receding in most parts of the capital of 12million people yesterday, some areas such as Pasig City remained under water.
'We are continuing with our rescue operations for those who are still in need,' Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, who heads the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), said.
'We're appealing for more donations of food, water and warm clothes,' he added.
The Philippine Red Cross said more than 75,000 people were housed in 131 evacuation centres set up in schools and other public buildings. It asked for donations of food, drinking water and clothes.
President Gloria Arroyo, in a radio broadcast yesterday, urged Filipinos to remain calm.
'We shall manage our way out of this latest natural calamity. Let us band together and look out for each other in the finest Filipino tradition of caring and sharing,' she said.
Some people stuck on rooftops made frantic appeals for help to local radio and television stations using their mobile phones.
'Please come and get us. We have been marooned here since the afternoon,' pleaded Ms Cristine Reyes, a resident in Manila's Marikina district late on Saturday. She was trapped with her two young nephews and her mother on the second floor of the family home.
'The water continues to go up, and soon we will be under water.'
In the same district, Ms Cielo del Pena, 31, told The Straits Times by phone that she and her 10-year-old daughter had spent nearly 20 hours stranded on their rooftop.
'We are used to storms and floods in the Philippines, but I have never seen anything like this,' she said. 'All my things are gone and we have nothing to eat.'
Power distributor Meralco cut off electricity in many parts of the capital on Saturday to prevent people from being electrocuted by downed power lines, a common danger during heavy storms here.
Seven people were reported killed in Manila. Nearby Rizal province was one of the hardest hit, with officials reporting 23 deaths.
The mayor of Cainta was stranded on top of a truck, stuck on a road.
'The whole town is almost 100 per cent under water,' he told ABS-CBN television by mobile phone.
The network broadcast footage of several people, screaming for help, being swept away by a swollen and debris-strewn river in Rizal province.
The weather bureau said Ketsana dumped 410mm of rain, exceeding the previous one-day record of 311mm in June 1967, and that more rain had fallen on Manila and surrounding provinces than on New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina slammed into the city in 2005.
The NDCC is set to hold a meeting today to begin damage assessment.
Manila's drainage system, whose network of drains is often clogged by garbage, is expected to come under fire.
Typhoon Batters Philippines, Nearly 60 Killed
Karen Lema and Manny Mogato, PlanetArk 28 Sep 09;
MANILA - Nearly 60 people were killed, Manila was blacked out and airline flights were suspended as a powerful typhoon battered the main Philippines island of Luzon on Saturday, disaster officials said.
Television showed houses swept away by swollen rivers, people on rooftops waving for help and throngs stranded along Manila's submerged main thoroughfares as the storm packing winds of 100 kph (60 mph) dumped 341 mm (13.5 inches) of rain in six hours.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo appealed for donations of clothes, blankets, food and water as hundreds of families, perched on rooftops or were trapped in submerged areas, waiting for rescue.
"I am calling on our countrymen, especially residents of metro Manila and other provinces in the path of the typhoon, to please stay calm, follow the instructions of local officials and civil defense authorities," Arroyo said in a televised message.
At least 47 people were killed, mostly by drowning, in Rizal province, east of Manila, radio reports quoted the local governor as saying.
Eleven more people were killed by collapsing walls and rising floodwaters in the capital area, disaster officials said.
Authorities shut down operations at international and domestic airports, stranding thousands of passengers. An advisory said operations would not resume until Sunday.
Disaster officials declared a "state of calamity" for the capital region and 25 other areas on the main island of Luzon, in order to speed up rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts.
Businesses and commercial shops closed early and local hotels were packed by weary commuters.
The typhoon was moving west-northwest and was expected to head toward the South China Sea by Sunday evening or Monday morning, chief weather forecaster Nathaniel Cruz told a local radio station.
He said the typhoon brought the heaviest rainfall in the country since 1967 after its weather station collected 341 mm of rainfall in six hours on Saturday.
An average of about 20 typhoons strike the Southeast Asian nation every year.
(Editing by Michael Roddy)
Philippine floods stress the human element in Bangkok climate talks - WWF
WWF 27 Sep 09;
Bangkok, Thailand – Extreme rainfall causing disastrous flooding in the Philippines should remind delegates gathering for the United Nations climate talks in Bangkok that their deliberations will influence the lives and livelihoods of millions, WWF said.
Regretting the loss of life in the flooding which has displaced hundreds of thousands, WWF said it was aware that Philippines meteorogists had linked the event to climate change, but cautioned that drawing such links to individual extreme weather events was difficult.
The science is clear however that more frequent and more severe extreme weather events are already and will be an increasing consequence of climate change. This will include more extreme rainfall events similar to the record rainfall brought by tropical storm Ondoy to the Manila area and to flooding from record rains that devastated Istanbul and other areas of Turkey a fortnight ago.
"Ondoy taught Manila a painful and very expensive lesson," wrote WWF-Phillipines Chief Executive Officer Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan. "With climate change, no one is ever exempt. Its impacts are dynamic and non-linear. Coastal zones and flood prone areas along river banks and lake shores will of course get hit. But less vulnerable areas and sectors are affected as well, because the impacts of an extreme weather event spill over into transportation, infrastructure, power, telecommunications, health, food security, water - all leading to internal displacement and marginalization of hundreds, even thousands, of people."
“The Philippine floods should remind politicians and delegates negotiating the climate treaty that they are not just talking about paragraphs, amendments and dollars but about the lives of millions of people and the future of this planet,” said Kim Carstensen, Leader of the WWF Global Climate Initiative.
“After months of haggling, losing time and arguing we have now entered the last phase and have an absolutely last minute chance to rescue the climate deal.”
The UN Climate Summit of heads of state in New York last week has given negotiators a mandate to turn the 170-page draft into an agreeable treaty. This is urgently needed to ensure the survival of vulnerable nations at risk from climate change.
According to WWF in order to prevent failure in Copenhagen and future climate disasters, negotiators in Bangkok should aim at cutting the UN draft texts by 40% by the middle of the conference and by 85% by the end of the two-week talks.
The main tasks are in the hands of rich countries which need to come up with ambitious reduction targets as well as finance commitments which will help developing countries to adapt to climate change
“Delegates are equipped with a clear mandate to edit at record speed and accelerate the drafting process”, said Carstensen. “Maybe big targets and big money will only be agreed in Copenhagen, but that can’t be an excuse for wasting time, at least the crucial groundwork must be laid here. We need clarity on what the key elements are for a Copenhagen climate deal.
WWF is worried about a mismatch between credible leadership in Asia and empty rhetoric in Europe and the United States. While key Asian countries are offering concrete contributions to reach a deal in December, EU and US are emerging as major stumbling blocks.
WWF applauds Japan, China and India for outlining concrete mitigation action and for playing an increasingly constructive role in the negotiations, confirming their determination to become the world’s next economic leaders on the basis of a green economy and low carbon growth.
“Pledges such as Japan’s to reduce emissions 25% from 1990 levels by 2020 and that of Indonesia to keep emission growth 26% to 41% below business as usual projections by 2020 are bringing us closer to the global emission reduction targets we need”, said Carstensen.
Both developed and developing Asia are finding their way to the top in the world league of climate action. Now industrialized countries and in particular the US has to follow Asia’s example, and after missed opportunities in New York and Pittsburgh the talks in Bangkok present the next chance to step up.
