Tens of thousands in Philippines flee new typhoon

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-02 17:41

A man transports his child in a basin through floodwaters brought on by Typhoon Ketsana, known locally as Ondoy, in San Pedro Laguna, south of Manila October 1, 2009. [Agencies]

MANILA: Tens of thousands of villagers fled the likely path of a powerful typhoon bearing down Friday on the Philippines, as the government braced for the possibility of a second disaster just days after a storm killed more than 400.

Heavy rain drenched mountainous coastal regions in the northeast as Typhoon Parma tracked ominously toward heavily populated areas still saturated from the worst flooding in 40 years.

Parma was forecast to hit the east coast Saturday, packing sustained winds of up to 120 mph (195 kph) and gusts up to 140 mph (230 kph). Officials fear it may develop into a "super-typhoon," the government's weather bureau said.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a nationwide "state of calamity" and ordered six provincial governments to evacuate residents from flood- and landslide-prone areas in the path of the storm.

The "state of calamity" extends the one applied to Manila and 25 provinces hit by the earlier storm. The declaration frees up funds to respond to emergencies.

The earlier storm, Ketsana, wrought a trail of destruction across four Southeast Asian countries, killing at least 422, including 293 in the Philippines, 99 in Vietnam and 14 in Cambodia. The Red Cross in Laos said Friday at least 16 people died and 100 were missing in two provinces that were still largely cut off.

In the Philippines, National Disaster Coordinating Council chief Gilbert Teodoro said children and minors can be evacuated from Parma's path by force, but adults will be given information to make their own decision.

"There is some resistance because they don't want to leave their homes behind for fear of looting," Melchito Castro, the disaster response chief in one threatened district, the Cagayan Valley, told The Associated Press. "If they can't be persuaded, we will be forced to get all the children and minors."

In Albay province alone, almost 50,000 people were evacuated Thursday and Friday with the help of the police and military trucks, said Cedric Daep, a top provincial disaster official.

The Philippines is hit by as many as 20 major storms a year and is well practiced at battening down. Typhoons in the region are most common and usually most powerful from August to November.

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