Post date: Aug 08, 2012 1:37:2 PM
QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES (AUGUST 8, 2012) (REUTERS) - Just as flood waters were beginning to subside in Manila on Wednesday (August 8), torrential rains slammed the Philippine capital again, raising fears of more floods.
Heavy torrential rains in the Philippines raise concerns in flood-hit communities that waters will rise again, as the government rushes to provide relief for hundreds of thousands displaced by flood waters.
The weather bureau again heightened the rainfall alert to its highest level after the volume of rainfall in one hour rose to 54.7 mm (2.15 inches) at 5 p.m. (1700 GMT), just hours after lowering the alert level.The highest recorded one-hour rainfall was 56.58 mm in September 2009, inundating 80 percent of the capital and resulting in the death of more than 700 people and destruction of $1 billion worth of private and public property.
About 60 percent of Manila, a sprawling metropolis of about 12 million people, remained inundated on Wednesday, Benito Ramos, head of the national disaster agency, told Reuters.
Some public offices and many businesses remained shut for a second straight day with the military, police and civic officials struggling to deliver aid as water swept through the city turning major roads into rivers.
Emergency workers and troops rushed food, water and clothes to nearly 850,000 people displaced and marooned from deadly floods spawned by 11 straight days of southwest monsoon rains that soaked Manila and nearby provinces.
Around 395,000 people were seeking shelter in evacuation centres and other emergency lodgings.
The evacuees said they had to scramble for aid or end up with no food and provisions.
"It's really difficult because first, you withstand getting drenched in the rain. Then whatever food donations you get, you have to fight over it, to share it amongst yourselves. You just need to be content with how much or how little there is," said mother of four, Maria Rowena Arnonoval.
Residents of a flooded community in Quezon City, a suburb in northern Manila, had left their temporary shelters and were beginning to clean up their homes as waters receded on Wednesday, but were alarmed when heavy rains started.
"I'm nervous, anxious, and scared. What if we wake up and we just find ourselves floating in the sea, dragged away as the flood waters rise. And now, it's raining again. It's raining hard. I'm going back to where we live, to be with my family," said father of two, Rolando Magat.
Residents living in low-lying areas and riverside communites were forced to evacuate, and the government is drawing up plans to relocate them for the rest of the monsoon season.
Nineteen people were reported killed since Tuesday (August 7), bringing the death toll to 72 since steady rains started when Typhoon Saola hit northern portions of the main Luzon island in late July.
The seasonal monsoon rains in the Philippines gathered strength this year from Typhoon Saola and as tropical storm Haikui travelled through the Philippine Sea this week. But the rains should dissipate by Thursday, the weather bureau said, as Haikui made landfall in China.