MANILA (AP) —The fourth major storm to whip the Philippines in about a month lashed the capital and nearby provinces on Saturday, leaving fresh floods and new misery before blowing out of the country. At least seven people were killed and several were missing.
Typhoon Mirinae, with winds of 93 miles per hour and gusts of up to 115, slammed into Quezon Province northeast of Manila around midnight Friday. It quickly swept westward out to sea south of the capital and weakened into a tropical storm on Saturday afternoon.
The typhoon appeared to be heading next toward Vietnam.
Philippine authorities evacuated more than 115,000 people in nine provinces east and south of Manila on the main island, Luzon, the National Disaster Coordinating Council reported.
Back-to-back storms in late September and early October killed more than 900 people, and a third storm threatened the northern Philippines before veering toward Japan.
Initial reports Saturday from Mirinae indicated more flooding but relatively few deaths.
The police said six people, including a 12-year-old girl, had drowned in a flash flood in Pagsanjan township in Laguna Province, south of Manila. Four others were missing in floodwaters in other towns, the regional police chief, Perfecto Palad, said.
A man drowned after being swept away by strong currents as he tried to cross a creek in Pililla township in Rizal Province while carrying his 1-year-old child, who remains missing. A man and his son who were in a car on a bridge that collapsed in nearby Batangas Province were also missing, said Fred Bragas, the regional disaster officer.
The muddy floodwater receded as rain eased, but was still chest-high in some communities.
In Manila, residents hunkered down in their homes overnight as the storm passed south of the sprawling city of 12 million.
The typhoon tracked the same route as Tropical Storm Ketsana , which dumped the heaviest rains in 40 years in and around Manila in late September. A week later, Typhoon Parma set off huge landslides in Luzon’s mountain region.
Nearly 95,000 people who fled during those two earlier storms were still housed in temporary shelters when Typhoon Mirinae struck, the national disaster agency said.
Flights at Manila’s international airport were canceled and about 8,000 ferry passengers were stranded as the coast guard grounded all vessels.
Manila’s electric power distributor, Meralco, said the high winds had caused power failures in many areas, but electricity was restored in most areas by Saturday afternoon.
In Taytay township in Rizal Province, about 400 shanties were destroyed by strong winds, Mayor Joric Gacula said. They were home to about 2,000 people who had fled their lakeside homes during Tropical Storm Ketsana.
In the coastal town of Ternate in Cavite Province, where the typhoon exited, a tornado destroyed 25 houses and injured one resident, Mr. Bragas, the regional disaster officer, said.
Before the typhoon hit, millions of Filipinos had boarded buses heading to their home provinces for All Saints Day, when people visit cemeteries to pay respects to dead relatives.
Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro expressed fear that floods and congestion might trap visitors at graveyards, where people traditionally spend a day or even a night, but few heeded his call to scrap commemorations.