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Reuters – 2 minutes 41 seconds ago
By Rosemarie Francisco


MANILA (Reuters) - A typhoon killed at least 10 people as it churned across the Philippines and hit the capital, prompting the evacuation of almost more than 370,000 people and shutting financial markets, offices and schools, rescue officials said on Wednesday.

The eye of Typhoon Rammasun, the strongest storm to hit the country this year, passed to the south of Manila on Wednesday after cutting a path across the main island of Luzon, toppling trees and power lines and causing electrocutions and widespread blackouts.

Major roads across Luzon were blocked by debris, fallen trees and electricity poles. The storm uprooted trees in the capital where palm trees lining major arteries were bent over nearly double by the wind as broken hoardings bounced down the streets.

Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross, said there was minimal damage in the capital but staff were trying to rescue people trapped by fallen debris in Batangas City to the south where two people were electrocuted.

"We have not received reports of major flooding in Metro Manila because the typhoon did not bring rain, but the winds were strong," he said.

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Tropical Storm Risk, which monitors cyclones, labelled Rammasun a category-two storm on a scale of one to five as it headed west into the South China Sea. Super typhoon Haiyan was category five.

But it predicted Rammasun would gain in strength to a category-three storm within a couple of days once it was back out at sea, picking up energy from the warm waters as it headed for the Chinese island of Hainan.

Rhea Catada, who works for Oxfam in Tacloban, which suffered the brunt of Haiyan, said thousands of people in tents and coastal villages had been evacuated to higher ground.

"They are scared because their experiences during Haiyan last year are still fresh," she said. "Now they are evacuating voluntarily and leaving behind their belongings."

Social Work Secretary Dinky Soliman said 5,335 families, or nearly 27,000 people, had been "affected" by the storm in Tacloban.

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Typhoon shuts down Philippine capital, kills 11
http://news.yahoo.com/
By Mynardo Macaraig
8 minutes ago


The first typhoon of the Philippines' brutal rainy season shut down the nation's capital on Wednesday, killing at least 11 people across the country and forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate.

Ferocious winds from Typhoon Rammasun tore roofs off houses, overturned cars and ripped trees out of the ground in the megacity of Manila, as well as remote fishing villages hundreds of kilometres away.

"I thought I was going to die. I went out to look for gasoline in case we needed to evacuate, but it was a mistake," said tricycle driver Pedro Rojas, 35, as he nursed a cut head while sheltering at a town hall on the outskirts of Manila.

"My tricycle rolled over twice after I slammed into sheets of rain. It was like hitting a wall... huge tin roofings were flying everywhere."

Falling trees, poles and walls killed at least 11 people across the northern parts of the Philippines that Rammasun swept over with wind gusts approaching 200 kilometres (120 miles) an hour, authorities said.

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Residents brave strong winds and rain as they evacuate their homes in a shanty town as Typhoon Rammasun barrels across Manila on July 16, 2014 (AFP Photo/Ted Aljibe)

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