(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Thousands of people displaced by floods triggered by tropical storm Fung-Wong returned to their mud-caked homes in the Philippine capital yesterday, as the death toll from the disaster rose to five, officials said.
Heavy rains paralysed the sprawling metropolis of more than 12 million people and nearby regions on Friday, with roof-high floods chasing 83,000 people from their homes, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
"We have no choice but to come back. We can't afford to rent an apartment," butcher's wife Lovi Barbosa, 35, said as she attempted to remove dirt from the floor of her home near a still swollen creek.
She said she and her five children, aged between two and 10, spent a sleepless night sat on the cold floor outside a tyre repair shop because the local school was already full of similarly displaced neighbours.
Three weeks' worth of rain swamped the region on Friday, state meteorologists said, as the eye of the relatively weak storm brushed past the northern tip of the main island of Luzon, more than 400 kilometres away.
Many of the areas hardest hit by floods, such as Barbosa's neighbourhood, are shantytowns illegally occupying the banks of rivers and other waterways.
"Generally, the floods have already subsided. People are starting to return to their homes," Alexander Pama, executive director of the disaster council, said yesterday.
The bad weather left five people dead and one missing, he told a news conference.
The storm itself caused power outages across northern Luzon, while rough seas left a small ferry off the central port of Cebu badly damaged on Friday, Pama added.
Navy rescuers along with nearby commercial ships retrieved 31 people from the stricken vessel, Philippine Navy spokeswoman Commander Marineth Domingo said.
An average of 20 typhoons or major storms hit the Philippines each year, killing hundreds and bringing misery to millions.
Super Typhoon Haiyan, bringing the strongest winds ever recorded on land, left 7,300 people dead or missing across the central Philippines in November last year.
In September 2009, Tropical Storm Ketsana dumped a month's worth of rain across Manila in just six hours, unleashing the worst flooding in the capital in four decades and killing more than 460 people.
The state weather service said Fung-Wong was forecast to hit Taiwan today.
Taiwan yesterday readied nearly 50,000 troops in preparation for tropical storm Fung-Wong as it churns toward the island with threats of downpours and powerful winds.
Three counties in southern Taiwan have decided to close offices and schools from yesterday night while dozens of flights and ferry services were suspended, authorities said.
Uni Air, which cancelled 12 domestic flights yesterday, announced that it will suspend all services scheduled for today.
The defence ministry said it has ordered 48,000 soldiers to be on stand-by in preparation of the storm while the authorities urged people in low-laying areas to take precautions against flooding as the storm is expected to generate torrential rains across the island.
In the southern metropolis Kaohsiung, television footage showed residents pile up sandbags outside their houses along the roads badly damaged by gas explosions on July 31 that killed 31 and wounded more than 300 people.
Fung-Wong, which was 200 kilometres south-southwest of Taiwan's southernmost tip at 0900GMT, was moving north at 17 kilometres per hour and packing gusts of 119 kilometres per hour, according to the Central Weather Bureau.
"Fung-Wong is maintaining its strength and is likely to make landfall in the south today when its impact will be the strongest. It will bring heavy rains all over Taiwan starting tonight and all day tomorrow, especially in southern parts," the bureau said.
In July, typhoon Matmo pounded Taiwan with fierce winds and downpours, leaving nine people injured while interrupting rail and air transportation.
A TransAsia Airways domestic flight crashed after an aborted landing during the typhoon, killing 48 people on board while ten passengers survived.
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