MANILA // Four people were killed as another tropical storm swept across the Philippines yesterday, triggering landslides in the mountainous north and dumping more heavy rain on the flood-battered capital.
Tropical storm Kai-Tak hit the north-east of the main island of Luzon before dawn, dumping up to 35 millimetres of rain an hour on a vast farming region, the state weather bureau said.
Areas to the south that were trying to recover from devastating floods last week, including Manila, also endured strong rain, which prompted authorities to warn residents in low-lying areas of the capital to be ready to evacuate.
Among the worst-hit areas yesterday were four small northern farming towns, where water was neck-deep in some areas and landslides cut off a major motorway, said Melchito Castro, the civil defence chief in the region.
"We have been experiencing really heavy rains since last night, and our rescuers have evacuated some residents," Mr Castro said.
Two men suffocated inside a tunnel when a landslide hit a gold-rush site near the northern mountain resort of Baguio yesterday, while two other people drowned, authorities said.
The new fatalities bring to 99 the number of people who have died because of storms since the beginning of last week, the civil defence office said.
Norma Talosig, the civil defence chief for north-eastern Luzon, said authorities there were closely watching the rising waters of the Cagayan river, the country's largest river basin, amid fears it could overflow. At more than 500 kilometres long, the heavily-silted Cagayan river is the longest in the country and cuts across four northeastern agricultural provinces.
Rain was also falling in and around Manila to the south-west, where more than 300,000 people were still in evacuation shelters following last week's floods.
