Sunday Times 2
Philippines typhoon toll soars as new storm threatens
View(s):MANILA, July 19 (AFP) -The disaster-weary Philippines braced for a second severe storm in five days today as the death toll from Typhoon Rammasun surged to 77, officials said.
A man pushes his electric bicycle against strong wind and heavy rainfalls along a flooded seaside street as Typhoon Rammasun hits China. The super typhoon has already killed at least 64 people in the Philippines (REUTERS)
While Tropical Storm Matmo was not forecast to hit the main island of Luzon, the weather service warned it would still bring heavy rains to the area over the weekend, along with the threat of flash floods or landslides.
“(Matmo) has entered the Philippine area of responsibility. We should get ready now before the heavy rains fall,” President Benigno Aquino’s spokeswoman Abigail Valte said in a warning broadcast over government radio.
The threat from Matmo came as the country picked up the pieces from Rammasun, the first major storm of the wet season and the deadliest since Super Typhoon Haiyan killed about 7,300 people in November last year.
Rammasun sliced across the country’s economic heartland including Manila on Tuesday, killing 77 people and wrecking more than 111,000 homes, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said in an updated tally.
The death toll had stood at 54 dead a day earlier, before casualty reports from remote areas came in.
Rammasun was meanwhile lashing southern China’s Guangxi region bordering Vietnam today with maximum sustained winds of 155 kilometres an hour, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.