Typhoon Gloria, internationally coded Cha'tan, has killed 14 and injured 29, displacing over 10,000 since it hit the northern Philippines on Saturday night.
Three listed in the death toll were South Korean tourists who were killed when their motorboat en rout to an island resort was capsized by huge waves on Saturday. Another two Koreans riding the same boat are still missing, the ABS-CBN news channel reported on Monday.
Packing winds as strong as 170 kilometers an hour, Gloria ploughed through the northeast part of the Philippines, and poured torrential rains over the weekend, invoking floods and landslides on the archipelago. The typhoon then headed for southern Japan early on Monday.
Civil defense officials said most of the 29 people injured were Koreans from the capsized boat. The majority of the 10,000 people displaced were urban poor squatting on land beside open sewers and rivers.
The report said steady heavy rains continued for eight hours since last night in the northern Philippines.
The government declared Monday a non-working day in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces. It also warned residents in northern and eastern Manila to be prepared to leave their homes if disaster coordinating authorities have to let off water from a main tap water reservoir in the capital region.
The month of June usually sees the beginning of typhoon season in the country, but typhoon Gloria has been the most destructive one so far this year.
( July 8, 2002)
