FIVE people have been killed and tens of thousands have fled from floods caused by days of unrelenting rain, rescuers said Sunday.
Civil defense officials warned residents of Manila and nearby provinces to expect more heavy seasonal rain over the coming days as more than 24,000 people sought refuge in schools and government buildings.
“We are expecting more low-lying areas to experience flooding,” National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council spokeswoman Romina Marasigan told AFP.
“Those who are already in evacuation centers should stay there until the weather improves,” she added.
Those evacuated include nearly 9,000 residents displaced by flooding from the Marikina River on Saturday.
The council said three Manila slum residents were crushed to death Saturday by walls that collapsed from the floods.
A man drowned crossing a swift-flowing river in Panay on Wednesday, the council said, while the authorities retrieved a body from a Manila canal on Friday.
A fisherman went missing at sea off Marinduque on Monday, while a man was injured by falling rocks at a highway east of Manila on Friday.
In all, more than 70,000 people have had their houses swamped by floodwaters, the council said, though the majority of residents have remained at home.
The western section of the Philippines has been swamped by heavy rain over the past week, forcing the cancellation of some domestic commercial flights and the suspension of classes.
