Typhoon Koppu weakens rapidly after killing 58 in Philippines
Source: Reuters
A typhoon that dumped heavy rains on the northern Philippines, killing 58 people as it flattened houses and destroyed crops, was petering out on Wednesday, weather officials said.
Typhoon Koppu weakened from a tropical depression into a low pressure area, but authorities maintained a warning to ferries and fishermen on three northern islands not to go to sea.
Raging floodwaters and landslides triggered by the typhoon in the main Philippine island of Luzon caused most of the deaths, Romina Marasigan, a spokeswoman for the national disaster agency, told reporters.
More than 100,000 people are still in temporary shelters as Koppu destroyed more than 6.57 billion pesos ($141.63 million) worth of crops, infrastructure and homes.
Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/10/21/us-philippines-typhoon-idUKKCN0SF0J620151021
The government is holding an emergency meeting to decide whether additional rice imports will be needed.
The meeting had already been scheduled for next week to try to prepare for drought which predictions suggest could be induced by the El Nino severe weather system.
But an official from The National Food Authority (NFA) told Reuters news agency the meeting would be held this week, after some 400,000 tonnes of paddy rice was destroyed by Koppu.
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However, the storm dumped some 130cm (4ft 3in) of rain which is still subsiding and tens of thousands of people remain in shelters - some with no remaining homes to return to.
Disasters management spokesperson Romina Marasigan told the press 194,387 families or 907,267 persons had been affected by the typhoon.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-34590520
51 inches of rain!