MANILA: Emergency workers scrambled to rescue residents trapped by floods in and around the Philippine capital on Sunday as Tropical Storm Nalgae swept out of the country after killing at least 48 people.
Several neighbourhoods in towns and cities just outside Manila remained under water after the storm raked across the main island of Luzon overnight, cutting power supplies and inflicting damage.
The death toll from the storm rose to 48, the national disaster agency said on Sunday, most of them from a series of flash floods and landslides that destroyed villages on the southern island of Mindanao on Friday.
In the Manila suburb of Paranaque, rescuers swam through three-metre floodwaters overnight to reach 60 people including children marooned on an upper floor of a building, a local official said.
“They were shouting and crying in panic because they really have no way out” after floodwaters rose as they attended a party, village chief Noel Japlos said.
“We did not expect the water to go this high. If we weren’t able to rescue them all, some of them could have died,” he added.
Video footage taken by the rescue team showed emergency workers in life vests using a rope to lead them out of the building while children were put on improvised floats.
In nearby Kawit town, a corpse in a white coffin floated on a flooded street, an AFP photographer saw.
Residents said a flash flood overnight likely carried it off from a nearby cemetery.
Kawit residents emerging from receding floods were cleaning up and trying to dry their wet belongings. — AFP
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