LONDON (AlertNet) - As survivors of the worst flooding in 40 years in the Philippines begin to sift through the debris of their destroyed homes or mop up the thick mud caused by landslides, questions have been raised as to whether more could have been done to reduce the impact of the disaster that has killed hundreds.

Days after Typhoon Ketsana struck dumping 410 mm of rain in 24 hours - the average amount of rainfall for an entire month - on the capital Manila and its surrounding areas, the country was braced for more storms this week.

The Philippines, one of the world's most disaster-prone countries, is battered by tropical storms every year. It leads a World Bank list of nations most in danger of facing frequent and more intense storms because of climate change.

But even though the government has taken steps to improve early warning systems and the weather station forecast a typhoon, no one expected the torrential downpour during the storm, dubbed a "once-in-a-lifetime typhoon" by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

"These kinds of disasters are so unpredictable now and you keep thinking what else you can do to strengthen the disaster risk reduction programme in the Philippines," said Christian Aid country manager Daphne Villaneuva who was forced to leave her home with her husband and two teenage children.

The floods deluged about 80 percent of Manila - a city of 15 million people. The death toll from the typhoon stood at 246 people on Tuesday. Some 375,000 more were forced to abandon their homes and take refuge in evacuation centres like schools and churches.

The water, which reached 2 metres high in parts, receded in some areas to reveal cars piled on top of each other, wrecked furniture and damaged electrical cables.

Villaneuva and her family battled through water that was neck high and at times so deep they had to swim.

"I wasn't thinking while I was on the street about the house. I was just thinking about surviving and holding on to my children and making sure we got to safety. It was only when we got to the evacuation centre that we realised it was probably all gone," she told AlertNet.

CALL FOR REFORM

Villaneuva recalls seeing others from her neighbourhood turning back to their submerged houses when the floodwaters grew too strong -- rather than push on to the evacuation centre.

"There's so much that can be improved in terms of forecasting. I think there's enough technology and science that we are able to do that. Of course, there's a question of budget ... but I think it's worth the price," Villaneuva said.

There were several reports of a release of water from two dams which compounded the flooding around Manila.

"If there was indeed a case of dams being opened -- that has to be done better. There was no warning system asking for people to leave that area," Villaneuva added.

She called for the government, which has been criticised for responding too slowly, to pass a disaster risk reduction bill.

If passed, the bill would ensure municipal governments allocate at least 5 percent of their budgets to disaster risk management.

"I'm strongly advocating to strengthen local governments to do much of this work because there's still so much centralising of the work of emergencies and disaster risk reduction in the Philippines. That has to be challenged and changed," she said.

"It takes so long for the national government to get to these places. The local governments are right there, near to people."

EMERGENCY RESPONSE

As aid agencies raced to deliver bottled water, canned food, rice, instant noodles and coffee to affected communities, fears grew of an outbreak of waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea.

The World Food Programme said it would provide more than 740 metric tons of rice to 178,000 people in the worst-hit areas.

World Vision's advocacy and communications director Filomena Portales said her group was targeting 100,000 people, adding that beyond food and clean water, mosquito nets, blankets, kerosene lamps and women's sanitary towels were needed.

With many roads still impassable, aid workers were concerned about gaining access to all affected communities.

"The weather station is predicting two more storms in a matter of days. We think the most urgent problem is the people living in those low-lying areas because the water has not receded," Oxfam's Shally Vitan told AlertNet.

"There's still a lot of people looking for friends and relatives in the low-lying areas and if the typhoon comes too soon they won't have a chance to find these people at all. It could be dead bodies they are looking for."

The storm gathered strength across the South China Sea, and killed at least 32 people as it made landfall on Tuesday in central Vietnam, where 170,000 were evacuated from its path.

From Hanoi, Lasse Norgaard, communications delegate for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), said more than 167,000 people in Vietnam had been evacuated from the areas most prone to flooding, and some 50,000 fishermen had been asked to bring their boats in to harbour.

He said the authorities had asked people to stay inside safe houses while the typhoon passes, and to stockpile food for seven days in case they were cut off.

"You can prepare a lot of things and save lives but saving livestock and livelihoods is of course impossible," he told AlertNet. "The coastline of Vietnam is flat rice fields ... there's no mountain, no mangrove to protect. You can run away but there's not much else you can do."

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