REFILE-UPDATE 2-Philippines hunts for dozens missing after its deadliest typhoon this year

(Refiles to change day in paragraph 1 to Friday)
* Vamco is Philippines' 8th typhoon in 2 months
* Classes, government work still suspended
* Deaths due to drowning, landslides, collapsed structures
* Typhoon approaching troubled central Vietnam

By Neil Jerome Morales
MANILA, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Police and soldiers in the
Philippines searched for dozens of people still missing on
Friday after Typhoon Vamco killed at least 39 people and caused
some of the worst flooding in years in the capital Manila and
nearby provinces.
Vamco, the 21st and most deadly cyclone to hit the country
this year, tore through the main island of Luzon late on
Wednesday and early Thursday, just as the country was reeling
from Goni, the world's strongest typhoon of 2020, which killed
25 people and flattened thousands of homes.
Retrieval operations found 39 bodies while the search
continues for 22 missing people, army chief Gilbert Gapay told a
news conference.
Successive typhoons - eight in the past two months - add to
the challenges on a government battling community coronavirus
infections and an economic recession.
Among the casualties, two men drowned and a child was killed
in a landslide in Camarines province. Three people died when a
warehouse collapsed in Cavite province.
The casualty count is subject to validation by local
officials and the disaster agency, which has so far recorded 14
deaths and three missing.
Tens of thousands of homes were submerged, although water
levels started to recede in parts of the badly hit Marikina
suburb, allowing residents to start cleanups after returning to
homes covered in debris and caked in mud.
"We don't know how to start cleaning. Mud is so thick up to
the second floor," Gilbert Gaston, a Marikina resident, told
DZMM radio.
Many residents took refuge on rooftops and were among some
6,000 people rescued across Manila's suburbs. Government
agencies were clearing landslides and debris elsewhere, Defense
Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said.
About 500,000 households in and around the capital were
without power and virtual classes and government work was
suspended in Luzon, home to half of the Philippines' 108 million
population.
Vamco was approaching central Vietnam, where devastating
floods and mudslides since early October have killed at least
160 people. It is expected to make landfall on Saturday.