Manila [Philippines], July 25: Sixteen people have died in the Philippines from floods and landslides caused by heavy monsoon rains intensified by a typhoon, local authorities said on Wednesday.
The storm was moving north-west towards Taiwan, where authorities reported two deaths related to the severe weather.
Work at government offices and school classes were suspended in the Philippine capital, Manila. Trading at the stock exchange was halted.
Floods in some areas in the capital were chest-deep, closing roads to traffic. In the financial district of Makati, people waded through knee-deep floods. Typhoon Gaemi is packing maximum sustained winds of 155km per hour and gusts of up to 190 km/h, the weather bureau said.
Social media footage showed raging flood waters around Manila and nearby provinces of Rizal Bulacan, including one where a car was swept away.
The weather bureau said the typhoon was enhancing the south-west monsoon, dumping more rain into the Philippines, which has been experiencing heavy rains since July 11.
Among the dead were a six-month pregnant woman, her 9-year-old child and two teenage siblings in a landslide in a village in Agoncillo town in Batangas province, south of Manila, the municipality's mayor said.
The landslide buried the victims' house on the side of a mountainous area in the village of Subic Ilaya, said Mayor Cinderella Valenton Reyes. The Philippine weather bureau said Gaemi, locally called Carina, was forecast to "steadily intensify and may reach its peak intensity" before making landfall over Taiwan later Wednesday.
Source: Qatar Tribune
