One dead as Typhoon Nesat strikes Philippines

Typhoon Nesat brought the Philippine capital to a near standstill on Tuesday, with its vast rain band also flooding remote farms and vicious winds tearing roofs off buildings in coastal towns. A baby boy became Nesat's first victim when he fell into a swollen river in the far east of the country where the storm first struck, but four other people were also missing and authorities said they were expecting further casualties. The Philippines endures about 20 major storms annually, many of them deadly, but the government warned Nesat was one of the largest to hit the country this year with its rain and wind path twice as big as average storms. "This typhoon is very wide in diameter, about 650 kilometres (400 miles), and covers most of (the main island of) Luzon," Science Undersecretary Graciano Yumul, who supervises the country's weather bureau, told reporters. Nesat hit the northeastern side of Luzon before dawn, bringing maximum sustained winds of up to 140 kilometres (87 miles) an hour and gusts clocking in at 170 kilometres an hour. It was expected to slowly travel across the mountainous, remote farming areas of northern Luzon throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, continuing to dump heavy rains across the whole island that is home to about 48 million people. Some roads around Manila, a sprawling megacity of more than 12 million people, were impassable on Tuesday morning due to flooding and falling debris, including branches that had been ripped off trees. The presidential palace announced the suspension of all school classes and work for government agencies in Manila and other affected areas, while dozens of domestic flights in and out of the capital were cancelled. The Philippine Stock Exchange also suspended trading, while Manila's main overhead railway system ground to a halt due to a power outage, stranding passengers in the morning rush hour, officials said. Some companies around Manila's Makati financial district also sent home their employees, including banks and other multinational firms, while blackouts hit office buildings throughout the city. The agricultural provinces of Isabela and Aurora in the east of the country, among the Philippines' leading rice producing areas, were the most heavily affected initially, the state weather bureau said. Isabela Governor Faustino Dy said about 1,400 people had been relocated to 17 evacuation centres from four coastal towns in his province to avoid powerful storm surges. He said strong winds that began lashing the province on Monday blew away the roofs of six houses, the public market and the community centre. "The wind was very powerful," Dy told GMA television in Manila, but said there had been no casualties reported. About 110,000 residents had already been evacuated from several flood prone towns in Albay, another eastern province, on Monday.