Powerful typhoon hits Philippines, kills 11 (2nd Roundup)

Oct 31, 2009, 11:00 GMT

   Manila - At least 11 people were killed as a powerful typhoon on Saturday hit several provinces in the Philippines, triggering flashfloods, landslides and widespread power outages, officials said.

   Hundreds of houses in shore areas were swept away by huge waves when Typhoon Mirinae hit land late Friday in Quezon province, 120 kilometres south-east of Manila.

   An 8-year-old girl and a 78-year-old woman drowned before dawn on Saturday when a river suddenly rose in Pagsanjan town in Laguna province, 55 kilometres south of Manila, according to town Mayor Emilio Ramon Ejercito III.

   He blamed the sudden rise of the river on a release from a nearby dam of a hydroelectric power plant.

   Six more people were killed in Camarines Norte province, One in Catanduanes province, one in Rizal province and one in Nagcarlan town in Laguna.

   Seven people remained missing, including a man and his 3-year-old son whose car fell into a river after a bridge collapsed in Batangas City.

   Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Torres, spokesman of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), said several roads in the eastern provinces of Laguna, Rizal, Quezon and Camarines Norte were impassable due to landslides.

   He added that several bridges collapsed or were swept away by floodwaters.

   Torres said Mirinae caused widespread power outages in the eastern provinces of Camarines Norte, Quezon, Rizal, Cavite, Batangas and the suburbs of Manila.

   The NDCC said 105,472 people were forced to flee their homes to escape the storm.

   Strong winds uprooted trees, toppled electric posts and tore roofs off houses.

   Relief officials said more than 500 houses were swept away by a sudden rise in waves in the lakeshore town of Cardona in Rizal province, 45 kilometres east of Manila.

   About 50 houses were also destroyed by strong winds in Ternate town in nearby Cavite province.

   Mirinae pummelled the country three weeks after back-to-back storms wreaked havoc in Manila and the northern provinces, killing nearly 1,000 people and affecting more than 8 million.

   The weather bureau said Mirinae weakened into a tropical storm Saturday afternoon with sustained winds of up to 105 kilometres per hour (kph) and gusts of up to 135 kph,

   It was moving at 20 kph and was expected to be over the South China Sea by Sunday.

   Coast guard officials allowed the resumption of sea travel in some areas battered by the typhoon and air travel returned to normal Saturday afternoon after 197 local and international flights were cancelled overnight.

   Local weather forecasters predicted generally improved weather for Sunday, in time for All Saints Day, when millions of Filipinos flock to cemeteries to honour their dead.