A typhoon that gathered devastating strength pummelled the main island of Luzon overnight, dumping record levels of rain that set off massive flooding and paralysed nearly all of Metropolitan Manila yesterday.
Dramatic rescues played out across several cities in the capital region, with tens of thousands rowed out of flood waters on rubber dinghies, small motorised boats, canoes and even jet skis.
In Marikina city and nearby Rizal province, home to nearly three million, residents fled to the upper floors of their homes or climbed onto rooftops as flood waters rose rapidly after a 78km river breached its banks.
"We are overwhelmed by the extent, magnitude of the flooding we are experiencing now... We are preparing for the worst-case scenario," Marikina Mayor Marcelino Teodoro told radio station DZBB.
He said he had received reports that several of the people who had escaped to their rooftops since the early hours of Thursday were already suffering from hypothermia. "Many are terrified," he added.
He pleaded for civil defence forces to send in helicopters to help with the rescue. Up to 40,000 houses were left underwater, and his city had only 50 rubber boats to dispatch, he said.
President Rodrigo Duterte ordered government agencies to rush aid to people affected by Typhoon Vamco. "Rest assured, the government will not leave anybody behind," he said in a national address, pledging shelter, relief goods, financial aid and post-disaster counselling.
Typhoon Vamco, known locally as Ulysses, made landfall at around 10.30pm in Patnanungan town in Quezon province, 130km east of the capital Manila, with winds of up to 150kmh and maximum gusts of 205kmh.
The typhoon was not seen as particularly alarming, as it had been classified as a tropical storm through most of its journey across the Pacific. But it quickly gathered strength as it approached Luzon's eastern seaboard, and then rolled just 60km north of Manila on its way to the South China Sea.
From late Wednesday till noon yesterday, hurricane-force winds and a heavy downpour battered Metro Manila.
By early morning yesterday, huge swathes of the metropolis - home to some 13 million - were under waist-high flood waters. Trees, electric poles and a myriad of debris were strewn across roads. One photo posted on Twitter showed the steel roof of a house dangling precariously on a bunch of electric cables.
Key highways were unpassable, and close to four million people were suffering through a prolonged blackout.
Mr Teodoro said Vamco caught Marikina, which had always been flood-prone due to its proximity to a river named after the city, by surprise.
But a top disaster-response official insisted the government "was not caught flat-footed". He said people caught in the typhoon's fury might have been too complacent and relied more on their instinct, instead of heeding government warnings.
Mr Duterte himself took issue with critics who accused him of sleeping on the job as the hashtag #NasaanAngPangulo (Where is the President) again trended. He said: "People are saying I'm not doing anything, just sleeping. No one here has had any sleep."
Outside Metro Manila, Vamco barrelled across regions still reeling from Goni and six other cyclones that had sliced through the Philippines one after the other since Oct 11. There were reports of landslides in mountainous villages, and storm surges pummelling coastal towns.
At least two people died, and four others were reported missing, the Office of Civil Defence in the Bicol region reported. A separate report said a boy in Cainta town, in Rizal, was killed after a tree fell on him.
Singapore aid agency Mercy Relief on Wednesday launched a fund-raising appeal for victims of recent storms and floods in South-east Asia. The appeal runs until Dec 10.
