By Roy Ramos
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
Still reeling from two typhoons that recently pounded the country, the Philippines was mourning the deaths of seven more people Saturday after a tropical storm swept through northern regions, including the capital.
In addition to the casualties, flooding from the Fung-Wong – known locally as Mario – injured six people while one is still missing, according to an update issued by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).
Fung-Wong moved in swiftly Thursday, bringing incessant rainfall to the northern island of Luzon that flooded several cities and provinces, including Metro Manila, until Friday night – even causing a river to burst its banks and some dams to nearly overflow.
The NDRRMC said 118,839 families - or 530,438 people - were affected in several provinces, with 23,581 families - or 93,062 people – seeking shelter in 181 evacuation centers.
As of Saturday morning, some 300 areas across the region remained flooded, and around 87 roads and five bridges impassable in Cagayan Valley, Central and Southern Luzon, Bicol, Western and Eastern Visayas and Metro Manila.
Fung-Wong is expected to leave the Philippines by Sunday night as it heads north-northwest at an estimated 15 kilometers (over nine miles) an hour, according to the NDRRMC.
Maximum wind speeds are estimated at 105 km an hour near the center with gusts of up to 135 km an hour.
The country's weather bureau said Fung-Wong brought rainfall of seven to 20 mm an hour (moderate to intense) covering an area of 350 km - slightly less than Typhoon Ketsana, known locally as Ondoy, which caused massive flooding in Metro Manila and killed some 700 people in 2009.
Fung-Wong comes one week after Typhoon Kalmaegi hit the northern Philippines.
The country is visited by some 30 storms a year - many of them deadly. The Southeast Asian archipelago is often the first major landmass to be struck after storms build above the Pacific Ocean's warm waters.
In November last year, Super Typhoon Haiyan struck the central Philippines, bringing storm surges that killed some 7,000 people.
Fung-Wong also came as the Philippine government is bracing for a possible eruption of a volcano in northern Albay province.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology announced recently that Mayon Volcano - renowned for its perfect cone - may erupt within coming weeks amid a reported increase in seismic activity.
The NDRRMC had reported that a total of 4,472 families - or 21,092 people - were evacuated from 19 villages within the danger zone, and are currently sheltered at 18 evacuation centers.
The Department of Social Services and Development has already provided some eight million pesos (nearly $180,000) of food packs to the evacuees as the government is bracing for another major calamity in the wake of three storms since July.
Mount Mayon last erupted in May 2013, killing four European mountain climbers and a Filipino guide.
While an eruption in August 2006 did not result in any direct deaths, a typhoon the following December caused landslides of volcanic mud to claim 1,000 lives.
The volcano’s longest eruption lasted seven days in 1897, killing 100 people, and minor eruptions were recorded in 1984, 1993, 2008, 2009 and 2010.
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