Officials survey flood damage in Manila
(NECN/APTV) – Members of the United States Armed Forces surveyed flood damage in the Philippines capital Manila on Monday after the city was hit by Tropical Storm Ketsana last week. Tropical Storm Ketsana brought the worst flooding to the Southeast Asian country in four decades, chasing some victims to their rooftops to escape the rising water and sweeping others down raging rivers. The storm struck on September 26 in Manila, one of the world’s largest cities with about 12 (m) million people, and dumped more than a month’s worth of rain in just 12 hours. Flooding was worst around the Pasig River that cuts through the capital, including wealthy suburbs and shanty towns. On September 26, Tropical Storm Ketsana killed at least 288 people and damaged the homes of 3 million in the Philippines before striking other Southeast Asian nations, killing 162 in Vietnam, 18 in Cambodia and at least 16 in Laos. Ketsana brought the worst flooding to the Southeast Asian country in four decades. The clean up from Ketsana was hindered by heavy rain from Typhoon Parma which hit the north of the country on Saturday and dropped more rain on the capital and surrounding areas. But still, classes in and around Manila were reopened on Monday after a week long closure, except where schools had been turned into evacuation centres. Children in the city of Marikina, east of the capital Manila, returned to high school for the first time on Monday to find their campus filled with debris and still blanketed in thick mud, nine days after the storm hit. Santa Elena High School in Marikina reopened and some students were able to attend classes, but many classrooms were half-empty, owing to a large number of people in the area who had lost their houses and all their possessions. Many children were handed shovels and buckets to help in the cleanup, carried out by members of the army and fire brigade and school staff. Thick mud coated floors and school books. “Some of the books we have not even used, and some school papers are now just waste,” said 1st-year high school student Aldin Palaos. Other schools were still being used to house people who were made homeless by the floods. The capital was spared fresh damage on Saturday when Typhoon Parma hit the main island of Luzon, killing 16 people and causing widespread flooding and landslides in the north of the country before moving onto Taiwan.
