Typhoon Koppu clings to Philippines' coast and flood woes may be just beginning, Typhoon Koppu's winds have slackened to the point where the tempest is now considered a tropical storm. But even with this trend, the storm still poses a massive flooding threat in northern Luzon, where it has already killed at least 11 and flooded entire communities.
Atmospheric steering currents in this area are weak, causing the storm to drift northward along the northwestern coast of Luzon, near the community of Laoag City. Although much of the storm's heaviest rain has remained over the ocean to the west of the Philippines, the storm is pulling in warm, moist air off the South China Sea, and hurling it at a north-south oriented mountain range in northern Luzon. This creates an ideal setting for causing heavy rain.The city of Baguio, located at 5,000 feet along Luzon's west coast, is particularly at risk from east-to-west oriented rainbands, and has received as much as 2,200 millimeters, or 87 inches, from past typhoons. At time of writing, it had been hit with 31 inches from Koppu so far.
Early forecasts of as much as 50 inches of rain or more in parts of the Philippines have not yet come to fruition, but the rain is not likely to stop for several more days. Much lower amounts of rain have already led to widespread flooding, making any more water on top of that even worse.Army, police and civilian volunteers rushed Monday to rescue hundreds of villagers trapped in their flooded homes and on rooftops in a northern Philippine province battered by slow-moving Typhoon Koppu, officials said.
The typhoon, known as Lando in the Philippines, blew ashore into northeastern Aurora province early Sunday, leaving at least 11 dead, forcing more than 65,000 villagers from their homes, and leaving nine provinces without electricity. By Monday afternoon, Koppu had weakened into a tropical storm over Ilocos Norte province with winds of 105 kilometers (65 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 135 kph (84 mph).
Several of the affected provinces, led by Nueva Ecija, were inundated by floods that swelled rivers and cascaded down mountains, trapping villagers in their homes, said Nigel Lontoc of the Office of Civil Defense.
"There were people who got trapped by the flood on their roofs, some were rescued already," Vice Mayor Henry Velarde of Nueva Ecija's Jaen town told The Associated Press by telephone, adding that about 80% of 27 villages in his farming town of more than 45,000 people were inundated by flood.When a flooded river swamped the villages, residents scrambled to safety but many failed to save their poultry and farm animals. Out of more than 5,000 ducks, for example, only about 1,000 were saved and many rice crops ready to be harvested in a few weeks turned into a muddy waste, he said.
"Our rice farms looked like it was ran over by a giant flat iron," Velarde said. "All the rice stalks were flattened in one direction."
Hundreds of soldiers, police and volunteers have converged on Nueva Ecija, a landlocked, rice-growing province in the heart of Luzon island, to help villagers whose homes had been flooded, said Lontoc.
Erwin Jacinto, a 37-year-old resident of Nueva Ecija's Santa Rosa town, said the flooding turned his farmland into "nothing but mud."
Jacinto spoke from atop a high bridge where dozens of farmers stayed in the open overnight with their families, and their pigs, goats and chickens.
Atmospheric steering currents in this area are weak, causing the storm to drift northward along the northwestern coast of Luzon, near the community of Laoag City. Although much of the storm's heaviest rain has remained over the ocean to the west of the Philippines, the storm is pulling in warm, moist air off the South China Sea, and hurling it at a north-south oriented mountain range in northern Luzon. This creates an ideal setting for causing heavy rain.The city of Baguio, located at 5,000 feet along Luzon's west coast, is particularly at risk from east-to-west oriented rainbands, and has received as much as 2,200 millimeters, or 87 inches, from past typhoons. At time of writing, it had been hit with 31 inches from Koppu so far.
Early forecasts of as much as 50 inches of rain or more in parts of the Philippines have not yet come to fruition, but the rain is not likely to stop for several more days. Much lower amounts of rain have already led to widespread flooding, making any more water on top of that even worse.Army, police and civilian volunteers rushed Monday to rescue hundreds of villagers trapped in their flooded homes and on rooftops in a northern Philippine province battered by slow-moving Typhoon Koppu, officials said.
The typhoon, known as Lando in the Philippines, blew ashore into northeastern Aurora province early Sunday, leaving at least 11 dead, forcing more than 65,000 villagers from their homes, and leaving nine provinces without electricity. By Monday afternoon, Koppu had weakened into a tropical storm over Ilocos Norte province with winds of 105 kilometers (65 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 135 kph (84 mph).
Several of the affected provinces, led by Nueva Ecija, were inundated by floods that swelled rivers and cascaded down mountains, trapping villagers in their homes, said Nigel Lontoc of the Office of Civil Defense.
"There were people who got trapped by the flood on their roofs, some were rescued already," Vice Mayor Henry Velarde of Nueva Ecija's Jaen town told The Associated Press by telephone, adding that about 80% of 27 villages in his farming town of more than 45,000 people were inundated by flood.When a flooded river swamped the villages, residents scrambled to safety but many failed to save their poultry and farm animals. Out of more than 5,000 ducks, for example, only about 1,000 were saved and many rice crops ready to be harvested in a few weeks turned into a muddy waste, he said.
"Our rice farms looked like it was ran over by a giant flat iron," Velarde said. "All the rice stalks were flattened in one direction."
Hundreds of soldiers, police and volunteers have converged on Nueva Ecija, a landlocked, rice-growing province in the heart of Luzon island, to help villagers whose homes had been flooded, said Lontoc.
Erwin Jacinto, a 37-year-old resident of Nueva Ecija's Santa Rosa town, said the flooding turned his farmland into "nothing but mud."
Jacinto spoke from atop a high bridge where dozens of farmers stayed in the open overnight with their families, and their pigs, goats and chickens.
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