Philippines Sends Relief Teams In Path Of Typhoon
Date: 30-Oct-09
Country: PHILIPPINES
Author: Manny Mogato
Philippines' President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (R) looks at a military truck full of relief goods to be sent to areas in the central Luzon province, north of Manila October 29, 2009.
Photo: Palace Handout
MANILA - Nearly 150 army trucks loaded with food, water and relief goods rolled out to areas in the northern Philippines already devastated by floods and landslides as another typhoon bore down on the country.
Emergency and rescue teams were also sent to areas directly in the path of Typhoon Mirinae, including major rice-producing provinces north of Manila, said Lieutenant-Colonel Ernesto Torres, spokesman for the national disaster agency.
Mirinae, a category 2 typhoon with maximum center winds of 150 kph (93 mph) and gusts of up to 185 kph, was expected to make landfall late on Friday.
Landslides are expected in the northern mountain regions, where several villages were buried by mud early this month during Typhoon Parma.
Two powerful typhoons, Ketsana and Parma, dumped record-high rain that submerged 80 percent of the capital and wide stretches of farmland in the northern provinces, killing more than 900 people and displacing hundreds of thousands.
The typhoons damaged or destroyed nearly 38 billion pesos ($796 million) of crops and infrastructure.
( Editing by Rosemarie Francisco)