National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council spokeswoman Romina Marasigan told a press briefing that fatalities had been reported across the north of the country.
She added that nearly 300,000 residents had now been displaced in the island of Luzon, 70,503 of which are staying in evacuation centers.
The Philippines weather bureau said the cyclone had made landfall early Sunday and was forecast to remain within the Philippines area of responsibility until Oct. 25.
As of 10 a.m. Tuesday (0200GMT), Typhoon Koppu -- locally known as Lando -- has been downgraded to a tropical storm, and was slowly moving toward the Calayan and Babuyan archipelagoes at the northernmost point of the country.
The cyclone contained maximum sustained winds of 85 kilometers per hour (53 miles per hour) and gusts of up to 100 kph. It was moving northeast at 4 kph.
Marasigan said the initial estimated cost of damage caused was P183 million ($4 million), almost all due to agricultural damage.
She added that 184 buildings had been totally destroyed, that there had been 497 reports of flooding across the country's north, and that 24 bridges remain impassable due to flooding and landslides.
Power outages have still not been resolved in five provinces and three cities.
Koppu is the 24th named storm of 2015 in the northwest Pacific Ocean and the 15th to reach typhoon strength.
The Philippines suffers around 20 typhoons and storms each year, many of them deadly.
In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan -- one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded -- struck the country’s central islands, leaving more than 8,000 people dead, missing and injured.
By Hader Glang
www.aa.com.tr
20/10/15
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Heavy rain deepened flood misery in farming and mountainous regions of the northern Philippines on Tuesday, after the latest typhoon to hit the storm-ravaged nation killed at least 22 people...
ReplyDeleteKoppu had weakened into a tropical storm and moved into the South China Sea by Tuesday morning, but its huge rain band ensured downpours across swathes of the sodden north where tens of thousands of people were displaced.
"The waters rose really fast, luckily we were rescued," Lourdes Gatmaitan, 64, told AFP after sleeping at a basketball court being used as an evacuation centre in Cabanatuan, a town about three hours' drive north of Manila, the capital.
Koppu, the second strongest storm to hit the Philippines this year, had impacted nearly 300,000 people across the main island of Luzon, the government's disaster management agency said.
Twenty-two people were killed in floods, landslides and boat accidents, as well as by flying debris, according to an AFP tally based on confirmed figures from national and local authorities.
Floods as high as rooftops had covered some of the nation's most important rice and corn farming regions in the flat plains north of Manila that are either side of a giant mountain range.
While the water had subsided on Tuesday in areas closer to the ranges, such as in Cabanatuan, the flooding had moved downstream to other farming towns.
More than 200 villages in the farming regions were flooded on Tuesday, with some areas more than one metre (three feet) under water, according to a report from the local civil defence office....................http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/161369.aspx
Death toll from storm in Philippines climbs to 39...
ReplyDeletehe death toll from a storm that battered the Philippines’ main island over the weekend has climbed to at least 39, officials said today (Oct 21).
Tropical Storm Koppu, which barrelled ashore as a powerful typhoon in the northeastern Philippines on Sunday before weakening, forced more than 100,000 villagers into emergency shelters and destroyed rice fields ready for harvest.
The storm blew away from the main island of Luzon yesterday and was over the Balintang Channel in the country’s northern tip this morning, with winds of 55 kilometres per hour near its center, according to the government’s weather bureau.
At least 39 people were killed in the storm, mostly due to drowning, landslides, fallen trees and collapsed walls, said civilian defense officials. Several people were reported missing and more than 500,000 were affected by Koppu, including 107,000 who fled to evacuation centres.
Disaster-response agencies said the rain dumped by the storm in the mountainous north flowed down rivers and flooded villages downstream in provinces including Pangasinan, where thousands of residents were evacuated on Monday.
“We saw that there was lot of rain that fell in the mountains. There was a possibility of flash floods so residents were evacuated to safer grounds,” said Melchito Castro of the regional Office of Civil Defense........AP.......todayonline.com
21/10/15