At least 51 people were killed while 21 others remain missing as tropical storm Kestana hit the Philippines and brought massive flood on Saturday, the government disasters relief agency said Sunday.
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A Filipino pushes his tricycle in a flooded street in Metro Manila, capital of the Philippines, Sept. 26, 2009. Typhoon Ondoy made landfall in the eastern coast of the northern Philippines on Saturday, bringing rains that caused widespread flooding in many parts of Luzon, including Metro Manila. [Xu Lingui/Xinhua]
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Rescuers saved more than 4,000 lives and transferred at least 41,205 people from their flooded homes to temporary evacuation centers, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) said in its bulletin.
Ketsana, locally known as Ondoy, made the landfall at northeastern Philippine coast at Saturday noon. It packed winds up to 85 kilometers per hour (kph) near the center and is moving west- northwest at a speed of 13 kph. The state weather bureau said the storm triggered an epic rainfall in Metro Manila in six hours ended 2 p.m. Saturday, breaking the 1967-record of 334 millimeters in a 24-hour period.
The disasters relief agency said 45 barangays (or villages) in the national capital region and 69 villages in just two neighboring provinces were "heavily flooded" while landslide occurred in at least seven areas across the central and southern Luzon island.
Of the fatalities, six were recorded in the national capital while 23 were killed in Tanay, a city to the east of Metro Manila, registering the highest casualties in a single city due to Kestana's devastation.