Typhoon Gaemi floods Philippines; 13 people died

Much of the Philippine capital Manila remained underwater on Thursday (25) after Typhoon Gaemi added to torrential monsoon rains that have hit the country, trapping thousands of people in floodwaters and causing widespread damage.

Continued heavy rains, massive floods and landslides in the Philippines have killed at least 13 people and displaced more than 600,000, and an oil tanker capsized off the country’s coast during strong winds and high waves, Philippine authorities said on Thursday (25).

Unlike Taiwan, the typhoon – known locally as Carina – missed the Philippines, but its powerful outer bands dumped more than 300 mm of rain on the Manila region and parts of the main island of Luzon, prompting authorities to declare a “state of calamity” in the capital on Wednesday. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes.

Videos and images from Manila showed people wading through chest-deep water and some clinging precariously to overhead power lines as major roads turned into rivers. Families with children wrapped in towels or plastic ponchos huddled in boats as disaster response teams rescued them from flooded homes.

Some parts of metropolitan Manila – home to 13 million people – reported floodwaters as high as single-story buildings, with some residents seen waiting for rescue on rooftops, according to the official Philippine News Agency.

In Cainta, in Rizal province, east of the capital, floodwaters were still waist-high on Thursday, according to local councilor Ben Ramirez Narag.

“Nobody is prepared for this, although we anticipated the typhoon, we could not have predicted the scale of the rains,” he said.

His team was delivering supplies to reception centers and assessing damage to infrastructure, he added.

The typhoon-supercharged southwest monsoon is still wreaking misery and destruction in the Philippines, even after Gaemi moved north and hit Taiwan early Thursday as the equivalent of a major Category 3 Atlantic hurricane.

Heavy rain, strong winds and a dangerous storm have killed at least two people and injured nearly 300 others in northeastern Taiwan, according to the Central Emergency Operations Center.

Taiwan remained largely locked down for a second day on Thursday, with flights cancelled and financial markets, schools and offices closed as heavy rains continued to batter the island. Some mountainous regions reported as much as 1,219 mm of rain.

A cargo ship carrying nine crew sank off the coast of Taiwan in rough seas on Thursday, the island’s fire department said. The Tanzanian-registered vessel sank about 20 miles (32 km) off the southern port city of Kaohsiung and was not equipped with a lifeboat.

All crew members “fell into the sea and were floating there” wearing life jackets, Hsiao Huan-chang, head of the fire department, told a news conference.

The island is expected to endure several more hours of torrential rain, even as the center of the typhoon moves into the Taiwan Strait and heads toward China.

The storm is expected to hit China’s southeastern coastal province of Fujian, bringing more strong winds and torrential rain to a country already hit hard by weeks of extreme rainfall and deadly flooding.

Oil tanker accident

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said Thursday it was responding to an incident involving a tanker carrying more than a million liters of industrial fuel that capsized off the coast of Bataan, west of Manila. PCG spokesman Rear Admiral Armando Balilo said 16 crew members of the MT Terra Nova were rescued during the search for a missing sailor.

The footage shows the Coast Guard launching a rescue operation and the ship nearly completely submerged in rough seas. Coast Guard aircraft were scrambled to monitor an oil spill with “an estimated coverage of two nautical miles carried by a strong current,” it said.

On land, the flooding caused widespread disruption that forced authorities to close schools, businesses and cancel more than 150 flights on Thursday.

Carlito Pagaduan, a resident of the northern province of Ilocos Sur, said to CNN that heavy rains fell Thursday morning and although flood waters had not entered his home, he feared they could lose power in the hard-to-reach area.

“We are trying to save battery,” he said. to CNN . “Due to the strong winds, we don’t know when we’ll lose power.” He said his family has prepared for evacuation but will remain at home for now.

Rescue services said Thursday they were continuing to evacuate residents trapped in flooded buildings. Some homes could be seen completely flooded and vehicles submerged in the streets.

Quezon City, north of Manila, was hit hard by the floods. The city government said in a post on X that more than 55,000 people, including nearly 16,000 families, had been evacuated and were taking shelter in community centers.

The Philippine Red Cross has launched an emergency appeal for donations to help thousands of Filipinos affected by the typhoon-enhanced monsoons.

“Families and children are without water, electricity and basic services, others are trapped in floods that reach their knees and chests,” he said in a post on X.

Dramatic footage published by Philippine media on Wednesday showed several barges crashing into a bridge in Pasig city as the Marikina River – a major artery running through the capital – burst its banks.

“These torrential rains provide yet another glimpse of extreme weather in a climate-changed world. Filipinos are calling for climate justice,” Khevin Yu, a campaigner with Greenpeace Philippines, said in a statement. “This is unlikely to be the last or worst storm we face this year. Climate impacts will continue to grow. It is the small communities… with poor infrastructure that are most affected. For their sake, the government must prioritize climate action.”