June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Typhoon Fengshen approached the outskirts of the Philippines capital Manila today after flashfloods and landslides reportedly left at least 20 people dead and forced thousands to evacuate across eastern parts of the nation.
The eye of Fengshen, the seventh storm of the northwestern Pacific cyclone season, was 90 kilometers southeast of Manila, packing winds of up to 150 kilometers (93 miles) per hour at 5 a.m. local time, according to the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.
The typhoon is expected to maintain its strength as it travels at 15 kilometers per hour toward Manila, PAGASA said. The capital, home to more than 14 million people, may experience winds of up to 185 kilometers per hour.
At least 17 people drowned in Central Mindanao and parts of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the Philippine Daily Inquirer said on its Web site, citing officials. A further three people were killed in Negros Occidental and Leyte.
At least 30,000 residents of Iloilo City are stranded on their rooftops after the typhoon caused a dam to overflow and sparked power outages across the province, the newspaper cited acting mayor Jed Mabilog as saying.
In the eastern Bicol region, the storm forced more than 200,000 people to evacuate their homes, the newspaper said, citing a civil defense official.
A ferry carrying about 700 passengers was stranded as its engine failed off the coast of Sibuyan island in the central Philippines yesterday, Associated Press reported, citing coast guard chief Vice Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo. Radio contact with the MV Princess of Stars, owned by Sulpicio Lines Inc., was lost.
The Philippines is regularly hit by typhoons and tropical storms that gain strength over warm waters of the Pacific before lashing the coast. At least 26 people died in November last year when two typhoons struck the country.
Fengshen is named after the God of Wind in China, according to the Web site of the Hong Kong Observatory, which lists names used for tropical storms and typhoons formed in the northwest Pacific.
To contact the reporter for this story: Stuart Kelly in Sydney skelly22@bloomberg.net
thats why i hate riding in a lines like sulpicio. there are always tragedies going on after there.
so i more ride superferry than sulpicio.
for those victims of the tragedies. my condolences. for the lives the lost in the middle of the sea.
sulpicio had lots of tragedies since the decade
1987
1987 - Ferry Dona Paz collides with an oil tanker off the island of Mindoro. More than 4,000 are killed in what is described as the world's worst peacetime maritime tragedy.
1988
1988 - Ferry Dona Marylin , sister ship of the Dona Paz, sinks off the central province of Leyte, killing 300.
1995 - the mv princess of the orient
2008 - the mv princess of the stars
whose next sulpicio?
damn, in this kind of situation. we should be careful and aware of what will happen if we made a wrong move.
now they will spend more money again to build an another exclusive ship like these
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