At least 18 people were killed as a powerful typhoon struck the Philippines Tuesday, sending thousands of people fleeing waist-high flood waters that inundated a five-star hotel, a major hospital and parts of the U.S. embassy's seafront compound in Manila.
The national and city governments appeared to respond quickly as wind speeds gusted to 93 miles per hour, or 150 kilometers per hour, executing forced evacuations in the most dangerous parts of the capital and deploying soldiers to help police and civilian teams get people living in low-lying areas to safety.
The Philippines was chastened by its experience two years ago when a tropical storm unleashed a month's worth of rain over the north of the country and the Manila area, triggering a series of flash-floods and landslides that killed nearly 500 people. Although the country is well used to typhoons—its position on the west of the Pacific means it is hit by over 20 typhoons each year—the 2009 storm badly exposed the government's shortfalls in preparing for some of the biggest storms.
This time, the country seemed better prepared. Del de Guzman, mayor of Marikina City on the northern fringes of the metropolitan Manila area, told ABS-CBN television that he sent out government teams to forcibly evacuate around 2,000 people living alongside the treacherous Marikina river when the waterway reached a critical height of 17 meters.
President Benigno Aquino III, who is visiting Japan, said in a statement that residents in Pacific-facing provinces Camarines Sur and Albay were also required to leave their homes by local government workers. He later told Associated Press Television News in Tokyo that he believed the country's authorities were responding well to the challenge of the storm, and that power would soon be restored to many parts of Manila and the northern Philippines after a series of short circuits as the typhoon made its way out into the South China Sea.
Typhoon Nesat still caused widespread disruption, however. Rail services were suspended as were scores of flights, diluting the impact of a strike called by employees of Philippines Airlines. Financial markets were closed.
There also remains the risk of landslides as hillsides already sodden by previous monsoon rains absorb the impact of this latest storm. Landslides killed the bulk of the people who lost their lives two years ago in Typhoon Ketsana.
With that storm in mind, many residents chose to move out of harm's way faster than they had done in previous years.
"It's better to be safe than sorry. It's not worth risking a life to stay home," said Antonio de Lima by telephone after evacuating his wife and eight-year-old daughter from their low-lying home in the Pasig City area of Metro Manila.
The flooding in some parts of Manila was the worst seen in decades. The historic quarter of the city facing Manila Bay was waist-deep in storm surge waters in parts. Flood waters forced staff at the Manila Hospital to move patients to higher floors and flooded generators left the building without power for much of the day.
Manila radio station dzMM also reported Metro Manila Development Authority General Manager Corazon Jimenez as saying flood waters had spilled into the lobby of the Sofitel Philippine Plaza hotel while employees arranged alternative accommodation for guests.
Television images showed waves as high as palm trees pounding the sea wall near the U.S. embassy compound, leaving people wading through the storm waters and turning the six-lane Roxas Boulevard waterfront highway into a river of debris and stalled buses and cars.
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