Rescuers paddle their boats along a flooded street in Manila on Wednesday amid heavy rains brought by Typhoon Gaemi.
A state of calamity was declared for Manila, unlocking funds for relief efforts, after the state weather forecaster warned of "serious flooding" in some areas.
Government offices were shut and classes suspended, more than 100 domestic and international flights were cancelled, and tens of thousands of customers lost power because of the weather.
Photo by AFP
A boy rides on a discarded refrigerator as he and other members of the family evacuate from their flooded home in Tumana village, Marikina City, east of Manila on Wednesday.
Typhoon Gaemi, which has swept past the Philippines as it heads towards Taiwan, intensified the southwest monsoon rains typical for this time of year, the state weather forecaster said.
"Usually the peak of rainy season is July and August and it so happens that there is a typhoon in the eastern waters of the Philippines that enhances the southwest monsoon," senior weather specialist Glaiza Escullar told AFP.
More than 200 millimetres (nearly eight inches) of rain fell in the capital in the 24 hours to Wednesday morning, Escullar said, which was "not unusual."
Photo by AFP
Residents watch the Marikina river as it floods from monsoon rains worsened by offshore typhoon Gaemi on Wednesday, near Manila, Philippines.
Gaemi, which was called Carina in the Philippines, did not make landfall in the archipelago but enhanced its seasonal monsoon rains. The rains set off at least a dozen landslides and floods over five days, killing at least eight and displacing 600,000 people, including 35,000 who went to emergency shelters, the Philippines’ disaster risk mitigation agency said.
A landslide buried a rural shanty Tuesday in the mountainside town of Agoncillo in Batangas province, and the bodies of a pregnant woman and three children, aged 9 to 15, were dug out Wednesday morning. A rice porridge vendor was hit by a falling tree in another Batangas town Tuesday night, raising the toll in the country to 13 dead.
Photo by AP
Streets flood from monsoon rains worsened by offshore typhoon Gaemi on Wednesday in Manila, Philippines.
Photo by AP
Residents watch the Marikina river as it floods from monsoon rains worsened by offshore typhoon Gaemi on Wednesday, near Manila, Philippines.
Photo by AP
A tree fell into a vehicle as monsoon rains worsened by offshore typhoon Gaemi on Wednesday, in Manila, Philippines.
Photo by AP
Rescuers ride on their boat as they evacuate residents from their flooded homes in Tumana village, Marikina City, east of Manila on Wednesday.
Photo by AFP
