Devastating Storm Hits Philippines Leaving Three Dead And Six Missing

At least three people has died and six missing after a major storm caused widespread flooding in and around the Philippine capital on Tuesday, forcing schools, government offices and businesses to shut down. The tropical depression, which left some people wading through chest-deep waters outside Manila, was the latest to hit the Southeast Asian archipelago, which endures about 20 such storms each year. Most of the dead and missing were poor people forced to live in identified “danger zones” despite government warnings of the risks they face during storms.The storm, locally codenamed “Maring”, hit the eastern town of Mauban before moving northwest across the main island of Luzon and passing just beside Manila, the government weather station said. In Calamba City south of Manila a flash flood washed away a riverside shanty, leaving six inhabitants including a two-year-old missing. Survivors walk under a fallen electric post after super Typhoon Haiyan battered Tacloban city, central Philippines November 10, 2013. One of the most powerful storms ever recorded killed at least 10,000 people in the central Philippines, a senior police official said on Sunday, with huge waves sweeping away entire coastal villages and devastating the region’s main city. Super typhoon Haiyan destroyed about 70 to 80 percent of the area in its path as it tore through Leyte province on Friday, said police chief superintendent Elmer Soria. As rescue workers struggled to reach ravaged villages along the coast, where the death toll is as yet unknown, survivors foraged for food as supplies dwindled or searched for lost loved ones.Mark Timbal, spokesman for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said local governments had ordered the evacuation of residents from low-lying, coastal and landslide-prone areas. The Philippine islands are often the first major land mass to be hit by storms that generate over the Pacific Ocean, bringing frequent death and misery. In one of the worst recent incidents, 7,350 people were left dead or missing after super-typhoon Haiyan struck the central Philippines in November 2013.Photo Credit: Getty

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