MANILA, May 7, 2011 (AFP) - More than 1,000 passengers were were stranded in the Philippines Saturday as ferries stayed in port and some domestic flights were cancelled ahead of an approaching storm, the emergency services said. The state weather bureau said tropical storm Aere, the first major weather disturbance of the year, was expected to hit Catanduanes, an island of about 250,000, on Sunday morning. The storm is packing winds of up to 65 kilometres (40 miles) an hour near the centre and was churning slowly westward toward the north of the main Philippine island of Luzon from the Pacific Ocean, it added. The coastguard barred smaller seacraft from leaving ports in Catanduanes and nearby areas, leaving 1,379 people stranded according to the government's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. Domestic carriers also suspended at least six flights to Catanduanes and the eastern island of Samar. "Residents living in low-lying and mountainous areas... are alerted against possible flashfloods and landslides," the weather service said in a bulletin. An average of nine storms and typhoons hit land in the Philippine archipelago every year, according to the government weather service.
More than 1,100 people were killed when Tropical Storm Ketsana and Typhoon Parma struck Manila and other parts of Luzon within a week of each other in 2009, triggering the worst flooding in recent history.
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