MANILA, July 14, 2010 (AFP) – Philippine President Benigno Aquino let rip at the state weather service Wednesday for not warning the residents of Manila about a strong typhoon that pummelled the nation's capital.
"This is not acceptable," Aquino told red-faced weather service officials at an emergency meeting of rescue agencies.
"We rely on you to tell us where the potential problems are."
Many of the city's 12 million residents went to bed late Tuesday having been lulled by forecasters' bulletins that Typhoon Conson would hit the northern provinces instead of Manila.
However the weather service failed to mention that the disturbance had a wide radius of 300 kilometres (185 miles), meaning that although the eye of the typhoon passed north of Manila, the city still suffered from fierce winds.
While there have been no reports of deaths, much of the capital suffered blackouts shortly before midnight (1600 GMT) Tuesday that continued into Wednesday morning.
Uprooted trees, power pylons and roofing sheets blocked roads early Wednesday.
Flights were suspended at Manila airport and schools were closed, even though the typhoon, packing winds of 120 kilometres an hour, blew out to the South China Sea.
"All the agencies have adequately met their responsibilities at this point in time but your information is sorely lacking. We have had this problem for quite a long time," Aquino said.
The ill-equipped Philippine weather service came in for criticism in September last year when it failed to warn the residents of Manila about the threat from Tropical Storm Ketsana, which killed 464 people.
