Toll from two typhoons in Philippines nears 640

Manila: Typhoon Parma (locally known as Pepeng) and Ketsana (Ondoy) which earlier hit Metro Manila and lower and southern Luzon on September 26, killed a total of 637 people.

About 260 recently perished in upper northern Luzon where Parma moved with howling winds and dumped more than 600 millimetres of rain since October 3, disaster officials said.

The number of casualties and cost of damage due to the twin typhoons would further increase as Parma is predicted to leave the north only by Monday.

About 150 people were killed and 50 are still missing in landslides in five towns in Benguet province as of Thursday night and yesterday morning, provincial police chief, Superintendent Loreto Espinili said in a radio interview.

Earlier, 25 people were killed in Baguio City, the country's mountain resort. "Many of the victims were buried by landslides, their homes destroyed," said administrator of the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC).

The new number of fatalities came from several local government units, on top of the official tally of 35 people killed in northern Luzon, said National Disaster Coordinating Council's administrator Glen Rabonza.

The 260 deaths in northern Luzon resulted in a total of 637 dead, 377 of whom were killed in Metro Manila, lower northern and southern Luzon due to typhoon Ketsana on September 26, said Rabonza.

The number of fatalities does not yet include data from Pangasina, which felt Parma's whiplash yesterday afternoon, said Rabonza.

"Many government agencies including private Filipino and foreign groups are responding to the extra challenging weather station beyond their limits," said Rabonza.

About 70 per cent or 30 towns and cities in Pangasinan remained under water due to continuous rains brought by Parma, PDCC said,

Agno river overflowed after San Roque dam released 4,000 cubic metres of water per second. "It has been holding water from the collapsed Binga and Ambuklao dams in upper northern Luzon," explained PDCC spokesman Buth Velasco.

People in Pangasinan remained perched on rooftops. "We told them to wait for rescue operations because rubber boats could not muster the strong current of floodwaters," Velasco said, adding that rescuers are having difficulty reaching the stranded victims because of the rising waters.

The United States military pledged to commit a CH46 Chinook helicopter and rubber boats to rescue residents who were stranded on rooftops.

The Agno river is Pangasinan's major river system, traversing 17 towns and a city as it flows from the Cordillera mountains and drains into the Lingayen Gulf.

Earlier, 30,000 residents were evacuated prior to the release of water from nearby dams, said Velasco.

Parma remained deadly because it landed thrice in some provinces in the north since Sunday. "It was the first time it happened," said Prisco Nilo, chief of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.