Super Typhoon Carina swamps PHL capital, shutters financial markets

CARINA (International name: Gaemi), which intensified into a super typhoon, and a southwest monsoon continued to bring heavy rains to the Philippine capital region and northern provinces on Wednesday, halting financial markets and prompting authorities to suspend work and classes.

The presidential palace suspended government work and classes at all levels in Central Luzon, Calabarzon and Metro Manila for July 25 because of heavy rains.

Metro Manila, which is composed of 16 cities and one municipality and home to at least 13 million people, was placed under a state of calamity.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin C. Abalos, Jr. announced the decision after an emergency meeting with city mayors.

The local disaster agency said close to one million people from 180,000 families were affected by the typhoon. More than 35,000 people from 8,320 families were staying in evacuation centers.

Earlier in the day, the presidential palace suspended classes at all academic levels and work in most government offices because of the typhoon. Local governments on the main island of Luzon followed suit. 

Carina was packing maximum sustained winds of 185 kilometers per hour (kph) near the center and gustiness of up to 230 kph, the state weather bureau said in a 5 p.m. bulletin.

It was moving northwestward toward Taiwan and was expected to leave the Philippine area of responsibility by Thursday morning.

It said the water level in La Mesa dam had reached 80 meters as of 4 p.m. and was expected to rise due to heavy rains. Excess water would overflow once the dam elevation reaches 80.15 meters, affecting the areas near the Tullahan River from Quezon City, Valenzuela and Malabon.

Carina did not make landfall in the Philippines but was enhancing a southwest monsoon, resulting in heavy to intense rain in the country’s north, the agency said.

Carina and Tropical Depression Butchoy (Prapiroon), hit southern Philippines and caused floods last week, killing at least seven people.

The Philippine Coast Guard said 354 passengers and 31 vessels were stranded in ports, while airlines canceled 13 flights on Wednesday, Manila’s airport authority said.

The Philippines lies along the typhoon belt in the Pacific and experiences about 20 storms each year. It also lies in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a belt of volcanoes around the Pacific Ocean where most of the world’s earthquakes strike.

Carina was expected to intensify further and hit its peak before its landfall in Taiwan, the state weather bureau said.

The combined effects of the typhoon and monsoon caused flooding in parts of Luzon. The Marikina River, which spans 16 bridges, overflowed and reached as high as 18.3 meters and forced residents to flee.

Malabon, Marikina, Valenzuela, Las Piñas, and Parañaque representatives were absent from the Metro Manila Council’s emergency meeting where the state of calamity declaration was adopted.

Quezon City Mayor Maria Josefina Tanya G. Belmonte-Alimurung, told a news briefing all the city’s evacuation centers were occupied, forcing them to use churches, covered courts and schools to house victims. Eighty of 142 villages were flooded.

More than 41,000 residents were staying in evacuation centers, the Quezon City local government said in an X post.

Kyanna Angela Bulan was in her condominium along Taft Avenue in Manila when the first floor of her parents’ two-story house in Marikina City was submerged.

“The flood reached parts of the stairs to the second floor,” she said in a Facebook Messenger chat. “Almost all of our furniture — sofa, bed, dining table, cabinets, storage racks, TV — floated.”

In Rizal province, a video showed residents helping a man swept away by flood in a town on the slopes of the Sierra Madre mountain range. Another video showed passengers leaving a bus in Quezon City, the country’s largest city, as it was submerged in floodwater.

About $500 million (P29 billion) in standby funds were available to support disaster relief, the Department of Finance said in a statement.

The President must first put the country under a state of calamity to trigger the fund release, it added.

Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said about 430,000 customers, mostly in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite and Rizal, had been affected by brownouts due to Super Typhoon Carina.

“We are closely monitoring the situation and our crews are working nonstop to restore service as soon as possible,” Meralco Vice-President and head of Corporate Communications Joe R. Zaldarriaga said in a statement.

President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. said the government had provided P43.15 million in aid to more than 770,000 people affected by Butchoy in the Visayas and Mindanao.

In his third address to Congress on Monday, the Philippine leader said his government had set up 5,500 flood control projects across the country. “Many more are still under construction.”

The Philippines is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, with annual economic damage at 13.6% of the economy, according to the World Bank. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza, Chloe Mari A. Hufana, Adrian H. Halili, Beatriz Marie D. Cruz and Sheldeen Joy Talavera