Filipinos brace for typhoon after earlier storm kills 293

TENS of thousands of villagers fled the likely path of a powerful typhoon bearing down yesterday on the Philippines, as the government braced for the possibility of a second disaster just days after a storm killed more than 420 in four southeast Asian countries.

Heavy rain drenched mountainous coastal regions in the north-east as Typhoon Parma tracked ominously toward the coast, dropping heavy rain on areas still saturated from the worst flooding in 40 years.

Parma was forecast to hit the east coast today, packing sustained winds of up to 195 kmph and gusts up to 230 kmph. Officials fear it may develop into a “super-typhoon”.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a nationwide “state of calamity” — freeing up funds for emergency relief — and ordered six provincial governments to evacuate residents from flood- and landslide-prone areas in Parma’s path.

The earlier storm, Ketsana, wrought a trail of destruction across southeast Asia, killing at least 422, including 293 in the Philippines, 99 in Vietnam, 14 in Cambodia and 16 in Laos.

In the Philippines, National Disaster Co-ordinating Council chief Gilbert Teodoro said children can be evacuated from Parma’s path by force, but adults will be given information to make their owndecision.

“There is some resistance because they don’t want to leave their homes behind for fear of looting,” said Melchito Castro, the disaster response chief in one threatened district, the Cagayan Valley. “If they can’t be persuaded, we will be forced to get all the children and minors.”

In Albay province alone, almost 50,000 people were evacuated on Thursday and yesterday with the help of the police and military trucks, said Cedric Daep, a top provincial disaster official.

The Philippines is hit by as many as 20 major storms a year and is well practiced at battening down. Typhoons in the region are most common and most powerful from August to November.

Government chief weather forecaster Nathaniel Cruz said Parma appears to be carrying less rain but stronger winds than Ketsana, meaning the flood risk may be lower.

But a vast swath of the northern Philippines, including the capital of Manila, is already saturated from Ketsana, and any more rain poses danger.

In the capital, some store shelves were emptied of bottled water and packaged food as people hunkered down. Prayers asking that the country be spared were broadcast on government-run trains.

Lake Laguna on the edge of the capital rose by more than a metre as Ketsana passed and was in danger of spilling over into districts near Manila housing some 100,000 people, said Ed Manda, general manager of the Laguna Lake Development Authority.

- Meanwhile, in southern India heavy rains killed another 35 people yesterday.

The death toll now stands at 86 in the state of Karnataka since Monday with many more made homeless by flash floods.

Around 26,000 houses are thought to have collapsed following the rains.