Thousands evacuated in the Philippines as monsoon rains inundate Manila | Weather News

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In some parts of the Philippine capital region, urban sprawl of more than 13 million people, flood waters have cut off roads for light vehicles.

Philippine authorities moved thousands of residents of the capital, Manila, from their low-lying communities on Saturday, as torrential monsoon rains, accompanied by a tropical storm, inundated the city and neighboring counties.

The National Disaster Management Agency said 14,023 people, mostly from a flood-prone suburb of Manila, moved to evacuation centers.

“We are asking residents of the affected areas to remain alert and vigilant, to take precautionary measures and to cooperate with their local authorities,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement.

Severe weather has hit several parts of the world in recent weeks, bringing floods to China, India and Western Europe and heat waves in North America, raising new concerns about the impact of climate change.

The Philippines, an archipelago in Southeast Asia comprising more than 7,600 islands, experiences about 20 tropical storms every year, but the warmer Pacific Ocean will make the storms stronger and bring heavy rains, meteorologists said.

In some parts of the Philippine metropolitan area, an urban encroachment of more than 13 million people, flood waters in places waist-deep, have cut off roads for light vehicles.

The Philippines was already struggling with one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in Asia, and it tightened restrictions to prevent the spread of the most contagious delta variant.

Rocky said the Department of Public Works is busy clearing rubble and landslides from county roads.

“Some houses were submerged to the surface,” Homerlito Dolor, governor of Oriental Mindoro province south of the capital, told DZMM radio station.

Earlier on Saturday, residents of Metro Manila and neighboring provinces woke up after a 6.6-magnitude earthquake hit the neighboring province of Batangas.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said the quake’s epicenter was southwest of the town of Calatagan in Batangas, the same province where an active volcano threatens to erupt.

The earthquake, which struck at dawn on Saturday, was tectonic, not volcanic. Aftershocks with a magnitude of 5.1 were also reported.

There were no reports of human or material losses.

Residents of the Philippine capital were already on alert Friday, after the government lifted some restrictions due to an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases due to the delta variable.

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