Filipinos inspect a site after the retaining wall at a landfill collapsed, causing a rubbish-slide after heavy rains brought on by typhoon Nanmadol lashed Manila

Super-typhoon Nanmadol killed at least eight people and left flattened bridges and blocked roads in its wake as it moved away from the Philippines and churned towards Taiwan, officials said yesterday.
The toll of dead and missing is likely to rise as officials assess the full impact of the storm, the strongest to hit the country this year, said Emilia Tadeo of the civil defence damage report section.
“After the rains have subsided, that is only when we find the additional casualties and damages, when the local responders submit them to us,” Tadeo said.
Five were killed by landslides including two children buried by an avalanche of rubbish at a tip in the northern mountain city of Baguio, the civil defence office said.
Two people drowned while another was crushed by a falling wall, weakened by the rain.
A further six people are considered missing after vanishing at sea or being swept away by overflowing rivers as Nanmadol brought heavy rain to the northern Philippines, the civil defence office said. More than 57,000 people were forced to flee their homes due to the risk of floods and landslides in the mountainous north, the office added.
President Benigno Aquino’s spokeswoman Abigail Valte said the government had pre-positioned relief goods and rescue personnel at vulnerable areas to help those affected by the storm.
Eight bridges were destroyed and 20 major roads rendered impassable when Nanmadol hit with gusts of up to 230kph, the civil defence office added.
The typhoon had weakened after clipping the northern edge of the main Philippine island of Luzon but storm alerts remained in force yesterday as the typhoon slowly moved towards Taiwan.
At 1100 GMT, the typhoon was 60km southeast of the southernmost tip of Taiwan, the island’s Central Weather Bureau said. It said the storm was packing gusts of 137kph and moving north at 10kph.
Taiwan evacuated 2,500 villagers yesterday from the east and south of the island, the Central Emergency Centre said, with the authorities urging the public to stay away from mountainous and low-lying areas. The defence ministry ordered 35,000 soldiers in the east to stand by.
A Singapore-bound flight and 22 domestic services have been cancelled while shipping transportation services between Taiwan and several offshore islands have also been interrupted. Offices and schools will be closed today.
The Central Weather Bureau urged the public to stay away from mountainous and low-lying areas as the typhoon, Taiwan’s first of the year, may bring fierce wind and heavy rain, sparking flash floods and landslides.
An average of 20 storms and typhoons, many of them deadly, hit the Philippines annually. The last storms, Nock-ten and Muifa, left at least 70 dead when they hit in July.
Nanmadol, named after an ancient site in Micronesia, is forecast to hit Taiwan tomorrow before cutting across to China. AFP