Tens of thousands of people fled high floods and at least one girl drowned in the Philippine capital earlier today as yet another storm swept across the country.
Rescue workers in trucks and rubber dinghies plucked residents from the tops of flooded homes, after one of Manila´s major rivers burst its banks, swamping heavily populated eastern districts.
“We´re dealing with floods over a large area. Our local as well as national responders are out there leading the rescue operations,” said Mina Marasigan, spokeswoman for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
She said the first known fatality was a girl who drowned at a flooded slum in northern Manila.
The hardest-hit area appeared to be the Marikina river valley in eastern Manila, where brown, swiftly flowing water rose at least a storey high on heavily populated communities near its banks.Rescuers aboard rubber dinghies, rescued people from their flooded homes.