WORLD BRIEFING
Rescuers plucked bodies from muddy floodwaters and saved drenched survivors from rooftops after a tropical storm tore through the northern Philippines and left at least 83 people dead and 23 missing.
It was the region’s worst flooding in more than four decades. The government declared a “state of calamity” in metropolitan Manila and 25 storm-hit provinces.
Tropical Storm Ketsana roared across the northern Philippines on Saturday, dumping more than a month’s worth of rain in just 12 hours and triggering landslides and flooding. TV footage shot from military helicopters showed survivors still marooned on top of half-submerged passenger buses and rooftops in the suburbs of Manila.
Some clung to high-voltage power lines while others plodded through waist-high floodwaters. More than 330,000 people were affected by storm, officials said.
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