Typhoon Koppu pummels Philippines; residents on rooftops
Residents trapped on rooftops by rising flood waters waited for rescue today as Typhoon Koppu flogged the Philippines for a second day, after killing two people and leaving thousands temporarily homeless.- Schools were closed amid stormy weather in Manila today, although the capital was not badly impacted.
- The government put the death toll at two and said more than 19,000 people remained at evacuation centres.
- It was forecast to cut across the Cordillera mountain range before exiting the north of the main island of Luzon on Wednesday.
- That was much weaker than the 210 kilometres an hour the typhoon carried when it slammed into Luzon's east coast before dawn on Sunday.
- Koppu lashed the northern town of Santiago with gusts of 150 kilometres (93 miles) an hour at dawn, the state weather service said.
- About 20,000 people had left their homes across the typhoon-hit areas and were seeking shelter in government schools and other makeshift evacuation centres, according to the government's disaster management agency.
- One of the flooded villages on the outskirts of Cabanatuan was Jaen, a rice farming community of about 67,000 people, where water was up to the roof level.
- 'Some residents pre-emptively evacuated, but others thought the water would not reach them so they got trapped,' he said.
- Among the flooded areas was Cabanatuan, about two hours-drive from Manila that is not normally hit by flooding, Lontoc said.
- Residents trapped on rooftops by rising flood waters waited for rescue today as Typhoon Koppu flogged the Philippines for a second day, after killing two people and leaving thousands temporarily homeless.
- Lontoc said many thousands of people may be stranded in those villages, although it was too early to determine an exact number.
- 'The water is now too deep even for big military trucks, so our people are trying to reach them using rubber boats,' he said, adding there were only 10 teams at their disposal at the moment.
- 'The floods are fast rising and some people are now on their rooftops,'Lontoc said.
- About 70 villages are under water in the spreading floods, with many resident calling for rescue from small numbers of military, local government and volunteer rescue units, said Nigel Lontoc, a regional rescue official.
- The slow-moving typhoon unleashed torrential rain over three major mountain ranges on Sunday and the runoff has since swamped the vast rice-farming plains north of Manila, rescue officials said.
Residents trapped on rooftops by rising flood waters waited for rescue today as Typhoon Koppu flogged the Philippines for a second day, after killing two people and leaving thousands temporarily homeless.
Typhoon Koppu pummels Philippines; residents on rooftops
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