9 die, thousands flee as storm Juaning hits Philippines

MANILA, Philippines—Nine people were killed and 25 went missing as tropical storm Juaning (international name: Nock-ten) caused floods and landslides that forced tens of thousands to flee their homes, officials said Tuesday.

Juaning brought unusually heavy rains to the Pacific coast as the cyclone hovered over the southern section of the main island of Luzon on Tuesday afternoon, the state weather service said.

The government’s civil defense administrator Benito Ramos estimated some half a million people lived in the hardest-hit areas, with one local official putting the number of people who fled their homes in the tens of thousands.

“The entire (province of) Albay is affected and reporting massive floods, landslides, and homes destroyed,” Ramos told reporters.

Bernardo Alejandro, the top civil defence official of the region, said evacuations were ongoing but that they did not have the exact figures.

“Many areas are isolated by floods and so we could not send people out to help them,” Alejandro added.

Albay provincial governor Joey Salceda had earlier put the number of evacuees in his province at 70,000 people.

Landslides, toppled trees and power lines as well as floods killed seven people in the largely-rural province, Salceda told reporters.

One person died swimming across a swollen river and another was fatally electrocuted by a fallen power line on Catanduanes island, off Albay, said Ramos’ office, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

At least 25 fishermen went missing while seven others were rescued at sea after big waves stirred up by Juaning struck their mainly small boats, it added.

Classes were called off in Manila and nearby provinces and about 20 local flights were cancelled, the council said.

The storm, packing slightly reduced 75 kilometers (46.6 miles) per hour winds, hovered off the Bicol peninsula on Luzon’s southern tip at 4 p.m. (0800 GMT), state weather specialist Robert Sawi told a news conference.

Juaning should be over the South China Sea early Thursday after raking across the centre of Luzon just north of Manila on Wednesday, he added.

Some 199 millimeters (7.8 inches) of rain fell over Catanduanes, and 118 millimeters over Albay in six hours, Sawi said.

Rainfall of more than 45 millimetres over a six-hour period is considered heavy, he added.