Thousands of houses were flooded in the northern Philippines due to rivers overflowing following heavy rains and the release of water from a dam after the typhoon. Man-yi.
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The Cagayan River burst its banks, pouring water onto agricultural lands and localities that were already suffering from flooding, and affecting tens of thousands of people.
In Tuguegarao town in Cagayan province, local disaster official Ian Valdepenas said floodwaters reached more than four meters in some places.
“We experienced very heavy rains two days ago”, but the flooding worsened “when the Magat dam started releasing huge volumes of water”, he explained to the ‘AFP.
“Moreover, our lands are already saturated due to the successive typhoons in the region,” he added.
In neighboring Isabela province, Jun Montereal, a member of the Ilagan city disaster preparedness committee, said 30,000 people were still affected by flooding, but the situation was slowly improving.
“I can now see the roofs of houses that I couldn’t see before because of the flooding,” he said.
More than 1.2 million people have had to flee their homes in the run-up to Man-yithe sixth storm to hit the archipelago in the past month.
At least 171 people have died in the series of tropical storms that began in mid-October and left thousands homeless, while destroying crops and livestock.
Every year, around 20 powerful storms and deadly typhoons hit the Philippines or its surrounding waters, but it is rare for several such events to occur in such a short time frame and this late in the year.
Scientists say climate change is increasing the intensity of storms and leading to heavier rains, flash flooding and stronger gusts.
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