107 Now Feared Dead in Philippines Earthquake
7.2 Magnitude earthquake does damage and kills in the Philippines.
Link:
http://www.voanews.com/content/death-toll-rises-to-107-in-philippines-quake/1770543.html
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7.2 Magnitude earthquake does damage and kills in the Philippines.
Link:
http://www.voanews.com/content/death-toll-rises-to-107-in-philippines-quake/1770543.html
The Philippines and its residents are bracing for another powerful storm expected to dump massive amounts of rain over the same area just flooded by Typhoon Nerat.
Forecasters say the new storm, Typhoon Nalgae, will hit the main island of Luzon Saturday morning. They say Nalgae has intensified rapidly and now bears winds of more than 200 kilometers per hour.
Officials are warning residents to be take precautions and stay alert to the storm's progress.
More than 40 people were killed and 30 more remain missing when the first storm went through the region this week. The storm downed trees and caused huge waves that crashed over seawalls in Manila, flooding a hospital, several businesses and the U.S. embassy.
Heavy rains also caused widespread flooding that has yet to recede in some areas.
Megi, the 10th and strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year, reached Isabela province on Monday morning and by early evening was heading west-south-west across the north of the main island of Luzon with winds of 180 kilometres per hour (kph) near the centre, forecasters said.
The Red Cross says Megi is the biggest typhoon to hit the Phillippines in decades, and that its impact could be devastating.
"It's a very, very big typhoon that's hitting our country, biggest in the last 20 years," Philippine National Red Cross chairman Senator Richard Gordon said.
"It could inundate coastal areas, river banks and it might cause landslides.
Tropical Storm Risk said Megi, known locally as Juan, was a category 5 super typhoon, the highest rating, with winds of more than 250 kph when it hit mountains in north-east Luzon.
"The governor of Isabela declared a state of calamity, so there could be massive damage and destruction there," Benito Ramos, executive director of the national disaster agency, said.
"Power has been cut and crops about to be harvested could have been destroyed. We have no actual report because we're waiting for the weather to clear up to make an assessment."
Initial reports were of one death and a small number of casualties, although the National Telecommunications Commission said up to 90 per cent of communications in Isabela and Cagayan provinces may have been knocked out.
Television footage showed uprooted trees on roads and metal and thatched roofing blown off houses.