Daijiworld Media Network

Manila, Sep 27: In a powerful attack by Typhoon 'Nesat' that sent waves as tall as palm trees crashing over the neighbourhoods here, at least seven people were reported dead, mostly in the metropolitan.

While rescue operations were hampered due to the torrential rains, the police managed to safely evacuate thousands of stranded people from low lying areas. The sea also spilled into hospitals, hotels and even the seaside US Embassy compound, which was closed on Tuesday. A five-star hotel was also evacuated, reports said.

The typhoon hit a short while before dawn on Tuesday in the eastern provinces and headed inland just north of Manila with up to an inch of rain per hour.

The geographical situation of the archipelago makes it an easy target for about 20 storms and typhoons forming in the Pacific each year but this latest onslaught has caught many by surprise.

The authorities have ordered more than 100,000 people across the country to take shelter from Typhoon Nesat's rains, winds of 75 mph (120 kph) and gusts of up to 93 mph (150 kph) that are enough to bend street sign posts.

At the hospitals, patients had to be shifted from the ground floor where water level was neck-deep. even the hospital generators were flooded and the building had no power since early Tuesday. Emergency workers evacuated river areas in the city that are notorious for flooding.

The first death reported was a toddler who got drowned after falling into a river. In yet another incident, a mother and child were killed when their house was hit by a falling tree and four were reported killed by a collapsing wall in the suburb of Valenzuela.

With a cloud band of 400-mile the typhoon threatens to move across the Philippines toward the South China Sea late Wednesday or early Thursday toward southern China.

The Philippines suffers frequent typhoons, about 20 a year, but Nesat is thought to be the largest this year.

It comes almost exactly two years after Typhoon Ketsana killed more than 400 people.