Heavy rains lash Metro Manila forces flights to be cancelled

Rains brought about by a tropical depression led to the cancellation of several flights as Metro Manila tries to cope with the latest weather disturbance to affect the capital region. The Philippine Atmosheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services (PAG-ASA), by noontime Thursday declared the national capital region, as well as several adjacent provinces, under storm signal No 1 as rains drenched the area, causing flooding in some parts. Rains had been affecting life in the area since late Tuesday but it was only Thursday afternoon that the PAG-ASA raised the weather disturbance category to that of a storm as winds reached 55 km/h. PAG-ASA named the storm "Dodong" and according to Robert Sawi, PAG-ASA weather forecaster, the storm will affect Metro Manila and nearby regions until Friday. "We can expect Dodong to affect the country until Thursday afternoon and improve by Friday," he said over radio station dzBB. Aside from Metro Manila, the areas under Storm Signal No 1 are Bataan, Pampanga, Tarlac, Zambales, Pangasinan, and Cavite. Metro Manila comprises 16 cities and one municipality. Early in the day, the Department of Education (DepEd) cancelled school classes at all levels except college as rains over the past two days caused flooding in parts of Metro Manila and the concerned provinces. Floods from overnight rains since Wednesday caused massive traffic jams in the metropolis and affected normal life. Due to the poor weather the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) cancelled several outbound flights. Connie Bungag, of the MIAA media affairs, was quoted by reports as saying that 24 local, as well one international flights had been affected by the weather. Meanwhile, an earlier weather disturbance in Mindanao left three confirmed dead as massive flooding inundated several villages in the province of Maguindanao, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRMMC) Executive Director Benito Ramos reported. Earlier, President Benigno Aquino III ordered the NDRMMC to take steps to prevent casualties from calamities. A large part of the Philippines lies in the path frequented by typhoons and other severe weather disturbances and every year dozens of lives are lost to accidents caused by natural disasters and millions of pesos worth of property are laid waste. From / Gulf News