Thousands of residents have fled flooded communities and swollen rivers in the Philippine capital and outlying provinces Saturday after days of torrential monsoon rains, which left at least one villager dead.
Officials said they struggled to open more emergency shelters in order to allow social distancing among the displaced residents and prevent evacuation camps from turning into epicenters of COVID-19 infections.
In the hard-hit city of Marikina in the capital region, nearly 15,000 residents were evacuated to safety overnight as waters rose alarmingly in a major river.
Marikina Mayor Marcelino Teodoro told News men, the situation would be too difficult if there won’t be a permanent solution to flooding, especially with the threat from the so-called covid-19 delta variant.
Teodoro blamed years of illegal logging in nearby mountains and heavy siltation in Marikina River for constant flooding in his city, adding that many of the residents were evacuated from flood-prone villages in Marikina overnight, depriving them of sleep.
In the mountainous northern city of Baguio, a resident reportedly died Friday afternoon after the taxi she was riding in was hit by a falling tree, adding two other people in the taxi were injured.
The northern Philippines has been swamped by days of monsoon rains that flooded low-lying villages and set off minor landslides.
Forecasters say Typhoon In-fa, which has churned off the country’s eastern coast and dumped rain on Taiwan before blowing toward China, intensified the seasonal downpours,.
