Record rainfall hits the Philippines

Seven people have been killed and at least four more are still missing.

Philippines Flood
200 evacuation centres have been opened to help the 600,000 people who have been affected by the flooding [EPA]

Torrential rains continue to pour across the Philippines.
 
At least seven people are now known to have died after some of the country’s heaviest rain on record.

A staggering 326mm of rain was recorded at Manila international airport in the 24 hours until 00GMT Tuesday.

This is usually the wettest time of the year in the Philippines, but the monsoon rains have been enhanced by Tropical Storm Trami.

The storm remained approximately 500 km to the northeast of the island of Luzon for a number of days, and only now is beginning to move away.

Authorities said that up to 60 percent of the capital region is submerged, and the flood water is reported to be neck-deep in some parts of the capital Manila.

200 evacuation centres have been opened to help the 600,000 people who have been affected by the flooding.

The government has suspended all work except rescues and disaster response.

Flooding has become more frequent in Manila in recent years because of deforestation of mountains, clogged waterways and poor urban planning.

Tropical Storm Trami is now moving away from the region, so the rain in the Philippines should ease.

The storm is expected to graze the northern parts of Taiwan around 12 GMT Wednesday, before slamming into eastern China.

Trami is forecast to strengthen before making landfall, but is not expected to become stronger than the equivalent of a category 1 hurricane, the weakest there is on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

Hopefully this will ensure that the winds will not cause too much damage, and the rains could even turn out to be beneficial.

Eastern China is currently in the grip of an extreme drought, so a decent soaking of rain would be highly beneficial in the long term.

Source: Al Jazeera