MANILA, Philippines?As Metro Manila took a direct hit from Typhoon ?Basyang? shortly at around midnight Tuesday, residents woke up to a Metro-wide power outage, knee-deep floods in certain areas, uprooted trees and toppled billboards.

Fortunately, there were no deaths or injuries although more than 200 families in low-lying and risk-prone areas were evacuated as a precaution.

The evacuees included 135 families from the seashore area of Baseco and 86 others from Del Pan and Isla Puting Bato, both in Tondo, Manila.

They were taken to the Baseco covered court and Del Pan Complex upon the orders of Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim who had earlier instructed social welfare department chief Jay dela Fuente and city administrator Jay Marzan to go around the city to oversee the evacuation of families living in high-risk areas at the height of the storm.

Evacuees in Muntinlupa

In Muntinlupa, 134 people were evacuated to Central Elementary School in Barangay Poblacion, according to city public information chief Omar Acosta.

He said the evacuees were forced to leave their houses after these were damaged at the height of the typhoon.

In a phone interview, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chair Oscar Inocentes told the Inquirer the damage caused by Basyang was very ?minimal? compared to previous typhoons which struck the metropolis.

?There were collapsing billboards and damaged railings. This typhoon was relatively weak; even the rains it brought did not cause floods except in few areas which had gutter- to knee-deep floods,? he said.

At around 8 a.m., commuters were spotted occupying half of Edsa?s southbound lanes between the North and Quezon Avenue stations of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) which was forced to shut down operations due to the Metro-wide brownout.

Both lines of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) also failed to operate due to the lack of electricity, leaving a lot of people stranded in Manila and Quezon City.
Late for work
Leonor del Rosario, an employee of a fast-food restaurant in Malate, Manila, who regularly rode on LRT Line 1, said she was already two hours late.

?It normally just takes me around 30 minutes to get to work,? Del Rosario said in Filipino. ?I was hoping that the LRT would immediately resume its operations,? she added, noting that there were only a few public utility vehicles plying Taft Avenue at around 6 a.m.

?I had to fight for space to be able to ride in a jeep. Students may not have classes but without the LRT, it?s still hard to get a ride,? she told the Inquirer.

A vendor at the Magallanes MRT station said that stranded passengers were lined on up the road as early as 6:30 a.m., waiting for buses that would take them to their offices.

The situation prompted the MMDA to deploy its buses to pick up the stranded.

At the same time, Inocentes announced the lifting of the number coding scheme and allowed provincial buses to pick passengers on Edsa.

Although Basyang led to the suspension of classes in the pre-school, elementary and high level in public and private schools in the metropolis, it was business as usual in most government offices.

Jen, a Manila City Hall employee, said she was hoping that Lim would suspend work yesterday.

?There was no suspension order maybe because we have a generator,? she told the Inquirer.

Lim, she said, had given strict instructions that city employees should report for duty although those whose houses were flooded were to be ?excused.?

Work at the Manila Regional Trial Court, however, was suspended.

Elsewhere in Manila, the strong winds brought by Basyang took down several billboards and trees, including a full-grown acacia which fell right in the middle of Quirino Avenue, bringing with it three electrical posts.

Flooded areas

Floods were also reported in Delpan-Recto and Bambang-Abad Santos Avenue, P. Guevarra, A. H. Lacson Avenue, España Boulevard, Pureza, Taft Avenue, P. Ocampo and Estrada Streets.

The waters, however, subsided shortly after noon, making the streets passable to all types of vehicles.

In Makati City, five vehicles figured in an accident on the southbound lane of Edsa due to knee-deep floods on Estrella Street at around 4 a.m.

The five-vehicle collision began when the driver of a Toyota Avanza suddenly stepped on the brakes when he got to a flooded portion of the road.

A truck behind the Avanza hit its rear, making it spin in the opposite direction before it slammed into an oncoming truck, Makati traffic investigator PO3 Renato Fariscal told the Inquirer.

The impact made the truck swerve to the other side of the road where it hit a van.

The first truck, on the other hand, crashed into a dump truck, Fariscal said.

In Pasay City, several billboards and signs were destroyed by Basyang?s strong winds. A billboard near the Ninoy Aquino International Airport collapsed on a two-story house although no one was hurt, Merisa Santy, the city disaster coordinator, said.

On the South Luzon Expressway (SLEx), a heavy equipment that had been suspended atop a road construction project fell on a portion of the expressway?s southbound lane before dawn, snarling traffic for hours.

Ana Gamboa, Citra corporate communications officer, said a girder launcher positioned on top of a column at the Skyway 2 collapsed on the Sucat interchange at around 2 a.m. and 2:30 a.m.

?On behalf of Citra and (Skyway 2 contractor) DMCI, we deeply apologize for the traffic the accident caused,? she told the Inquirer.

No motorists were hurt in the accident and Gamboa said they were still assessing the damage to the expressway.

With the girder blocking the road, traffic on SLEx moved slowly, with vehicles lined up all the way to the Merville exit.

Vehicular flow gradually went back to normal after workers cleared the area.

The girder launcher is used to lift and place concrete beams on columns.

Smooth traffic flow

In contrast, traffic flow in Quezon City was smooth with few stranded passengers from Tuesday night onwards, according to the traffic chief.

Supt. Rudie Valoria of the Quezon City Police District Traffic Enforcement Group said that even yesterday morning, traffic on Commonwealth Avenue was light.

?This is probably due to people?s experience from [Tropical Storm] ?Ondoy.? At the slightest hint of heavy rains and strong winds, they went home,? Valoria said.

Carla Bermio, a nurse who was among the few people out on the road early yesterday, said there was a long line of taxis waiting for passengers in North Edsa.

?Everyone went home early and stayed at home for fear of being stranded,? Bermio said.

Valoria said almost all of the roads in the city, including Edsa, were traffic-free.

?Traffic on Commonwealth Avenue, one of the most problematic areas during typhoons, was surprisingly light,? he added.

According to Joseph David, an instructor at a review center for nurses, said this was one of the few times he saw Edsa and Commonwealth Avenue free of traffic, particularly on a weekday.

?My travel time was cut by half. It usually takes me two hours to reach Makati. I made it in an hour, the road was empty,? he told the Inquirer.

There were, however, stranded passengers spotted near MRT stations.

?They did not know that the MRT had stopped its operations due to the blackout,? Valoria said.

With the overhead train system not operating, buses plying Edsa were packed.

?Sana wala na lang MRT, para palagi kaming puno (I wish the MRT would stop operating so that we would have always have lots of passengers),? a bus conductor said. With Tina G. Santos, Miko Morelos, Nancy C. Carvajal and Niña Calleja