TROPICAL STORM AUREA KILLS 22 IN PHILIPPINES

MANILA Philippines - Tropical storm Aurea affected 173,915 people and displaced 69,536 in 237 villages in six regions nationwide since Sunday. The hardest-hit of which was Luzon's Bicol region, a senior official said on Tuesday. 22 people were reported killed, including 3 missing. The storm dampened the summer with rains, landslides and floods that
Alberto Tolentino, 59, had a heart attack when a light tornado hit his home in Luzon's San Miguel, Calumpit, where Aure passed before making its second landfall in Aurora, said Ronaldo Flores, officer in charge of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).

• Roberto Hojita, 33, drowned in a creek in a village in Metro Manila's Las Pinas, one of the places where Aure's winds, though weakened at 65 kilometres per hour, from 85 kilometres per hour, roughed up seas and creeks as it rolled from south to north Luzon, Flores said.
• A fisherman, Agmeti Condat, 66, from Tiwi, Albay, has been missing since Sunday. The majority of the victims in the Bicol region were children who were buried by landslides on Sunday.
• Aure's swift passage from south to north prevented workers in Metro Manila from rolling down billboards which kept flapping overnight. Since Monday night, Metro Manila has been drenched with steady rain, unusual at the start of the hot summer.
• The sun started to shine only in the late afternoon yesterday. Roads and bridges remained closed, communication lines were down, and sea and air travel was banned in the Bicol region.

One bridge was closed in Masbate. Kennon Road, a major thoroughfare in Baguio city, the northern summer capital, was also closed due to landslides.
Reports on Aure's devastation in the north have not yet reached the NDRRMC's Manila office.The weather station predicted Aure will leave the northern Philippines and enter Japan's southern area yesterday.

Source: Agency