Typhoon Xangsane death toll nears 230

MANILA – The death toll from typhoon Xangsane in the Philippines neared 200 yesterday, as rescue workers reached remote areas where last week’s massive storm sparked flash floods and landslides.

The civil defence office and other government agencies put the official death toll at 197, with at least 22 others still listed as missing after Xangsane – the strongest storm to hit Manila in a decade – hit on Thursday. As workmen in the capital cleared the streets of fallen trees, power poles and other debris left in Xangsane’s wake, officials counted the human and economic costs of the killer typhoon – and braced for another tropical storm.The industrial belt south of Manila bore the brunt of the typhoon, with at least 154 people killed in five provinces, authorities said.Xangsane displaced 1.33 million people and blacked out the country’s main island of Luzon, leaving some 43 million people in the dark.After slamming into the Philippines, Xangsane headed across the South China Sea before smashing into central Vietnam on Sunday, leaving 30 dead.One person was also reported dead in southern China.Scattered flooding was reported around Manila overnight as another tropical storm approached from the Pacific coast.The new storm, packing maximum sustained winds of 85km an hour, was expected to brush past the northeast coast of Luzon late on Friday or early on Saturday, the country’s weather office said.Nampa-AFPAs workmen in the capital cleared the streets of fallen trees, power poles and other debris left in Xangsane’s wake, officials counted the human and economic costs of the killer typhoon – and braced for another tropical storm.The industrial belt south of Manila bore the brunt of the typhoon, with at least 154 people killed in five provinces, authorities said.Xangsane displaced 1.33 million people and blacked out the country’s main island of Luzon, leaving some 43 million people in the dark.After slamming into the Philippines, Xangsane headed across the South China Sea before smashing into central Vietnam on Sunday, leaving 30 dead.One person was also reported dead in southern China.Scattered flooding was reported around Manila overnight as another tropical storm approached from the Pacific coast.The new storm, packing maximum sustained winds of 85km an hour, was expected to brush past the northeast coast of Luzon late on Friday or early on Saturday, the country’s weather office said.Nampa-AFP