Typhoon Rammasun toll in Philippines rises to 10

Manila, July 16 (IANS/EFE) At least 10 people have died in the Philippines after typhoon Rammasun struck the northern half of the country with sustained winds of up to 185 kph, the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) said Wednesday.

A 25-year-old woman died Tuesday night in Northern Samar province in eastern Philippines after being hit by a lamppost, while a 49-year-old man died in Bulacan in the north after a tree fell on him.

Three other people were killed by the impact of different objects in Cavite in northeastern Philippines, including an 11-month-old baby and an elderly man, while three members of a family were buried under a wall that collapsed in Quezon province, also in the northeast.

The NDRRMC did not give details of the remaining casualties caused by the typhoon, which left the country at noon Wednesday.

According to the Department of Social Welfare and Development, about 450,000 people were evacuated and some five million homes were left without power after facilities at the Meralco Electric Company were damaged.

The intensity of the typhoon forced the Philippine Stock Exchange as well as government offices in Manila to shut down and led to the cancellation of classes in the schools of the city.

Rammasun, named Glenda by the Philippine authorities, struck the country even as it had barely recovered from damages caused by typhoon Haiyan, which left 6,300 dead, 28,700 injured and more than 1,000 missing in November 2013.

The typhoon season in the Philippines, which usually begins in June and ends in November, records between 15 to 20 of these weather phenomena every year.

--IANS/EFE

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