A tropical storm that brought heavy rain and severe floods to the northern and central Philippines headed away from the country Saturday, leaving at least five dead in its wake, officials said. Tropical Storm Molave was moving toward Hong Kong and southern China, with winds whipping at 59 miles (95 kilometers) per hour and gusts of up to 75 mph (120 kph), chief weather forecaster Nathaniel Cruz said. He said Molave dumped up to 20 inches (500 millimeters) of rain in northern Ilocos Norte province and more than four inches (100 millimeters) in Manila over a 24-hour period that ended Friday. The floodwaters, waist-deep in some areas, forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 people in four provinces and metropolitan Manila, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said. It said the waters had subsided by early Saturday. The flooding also forced authorities to suspend school classes and work at all government agencies in the capital Friday, and the Philippine Stock Exchange suspended trading after the central bank halted operations. The disaster agency said a 13-year-old boy drowned after falling into a river in suburban Caloocan city, and a 32-year-old man was electrocuted by a damaged power line in Ilocos Norte. ABS-CBN television reported that an infant girl drowned in her parents' bedroom while they slept in central Iloilo city, but the agency said it had not received that report. The agency reported that the bodies of two others who went missing Friday were found separately Saturday – a 9-year-old boy who fell into an open manhole in a flooded street near Manila and a 22-year-old man who was carried away by strong currents after slipping off a bridge in nearby Cavite province. The storm was the ninth to hit the country this year. The archipelago is battered by about 20 storms and typhoons per year.
