Typhoon triggers floods in RP

Typhoon triggers floods in RP

MANILA (AP): Heavy rain and high waves triggered by tropical storm Rumbia flooded many areas of the southern Philippines on Thursday and forced residents to flee from coastal villages, officials said.

Although the eye of the storm was still over the Pacific Ocean about 865 kilometers southeast of Manila, its rain clouds had a radius of 250 kilometers and affected wide areas of Mindanao and the central Philippines, officials said.

The weather bureau raised high storm alerts over at least 16 provinces in northern portions of Mindanao and the central Visayas islands.

At late morning Thursday, the storm was packing winds of up 135 kilometers per hour and was centered 180 kilometers east of Surigao on the southern island of Mindanao. It was moving northwestward at 19 kph, officials said.