Tropical Storm Saudel lashes Philippines, heads for Vietnam | Weather News

Thousands evacuated in the Philippines as Tropical Storm Saudel causes widespread flooding in provinces south of Manila.

Tropical Storm Saudel has lashed the Philippines, causing flooding and thousands of residents to evacuate, officials said on Wednesday, with the storm now heading for Vietnam where more than 100 people have already died in weeks of bad weather.

The region has suffered particularly heavy rainfall amid the onset of a La Niña weather system, a phenomenon characterised by unusually cold temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

In Quezon province, southeast of the Philippines’s capital Manila, photographs showed widespread flooding and boats being used to ferry residents to dry ground.

“The rainfall coincided with La Niña and the high tide. That is a big problem,” Quezon Governor Danilo Suarez told broadcaster CNN Philippines.

A waist-deep flood had made the…