P1B worth of crops damaged

Manila, Philippines – Disaster officials were shifting yesterday from rescue work to a massive clean-up of Metro Manila and nearby provinces following nonstop rains that left tons of muck and debris from floods littering the city.

“We are now into clean up and relief operations. Generally speaking, flood waters in Metro Manila are already receding,“ said civil defense chief Benito Ramos, noting that only about 10 percent of the National Capital Region (NCR) remain flooded.

“Only some parts of the Camanava (Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, Valenzuela) are still experiencing floods,“ he said.

He said soldiers will be mobilized to help local authorities collect the debris that have clogged streets and waterways.

The NDRRMC official added they expect the flood waters to completely recede in two to three days, except in the coastal areas where he said flooding may still last for one week.

“Bukas siguro wala nang baha, pero sa mga nasa coastal areas depende ito sa behavious ng da gat. Mabagal ang paghupa ng baha in these areas depende kasi kung mag-low tide or high-tide,“ explained Ramos.

He said all main thoroughfares and national roads that were rendered impassable by the floods are now also open to traffic.

The torrential monsoon rains that began Sunday left at least 60 people dead in the worst flooding in Manila since 2009. More than half of the sprawling metropolis of 12 million was submerged at the peak of the floods, and schools and offices closed for days.

About 2.4 million people in Manila and nearby provinces have been affected, forcing more than 360,000 to seek shelter in government-run evacuation centers, the Office of Civil Defense reported Friday.

Damage to agriculture was placed at more than P1 billion.

The sun was out for a second day yesterday, and residents were hard at work fixing disheveled homes and stores in floodhit communities that resembled a wasteland covered with mounds of mud-caked garbage. Some of the displaced in stillcrowded evacuation centers have begun to trickle back to their communities, where floodwaters have subsided, Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman said.

Reservists will be assigned to help repack relief supplies for people still in emergency shelters, Ramos said.

North of the city, rains still poured intermittently and a helicopter carrying President Benigno Aquino III had to land on an isolated portion of a highway early Friday when visibility became difficult, said his spokesman Ricky Carandang.

No one was hurt and the presidential party proceeded by car to visit flood victims in his home province of Tarlac, Carandang said.

The death toll from the floods rose to 60 early Friday after casualty reports came in from more provinces, Ramos said. Most were drowning victims. At least seven were missing.

Of the total killed, 26 were from metropolitan Manila, including nine killed in a landslide in suburban Quezon City. (With report from AP)