Rain, rain and more rain in Manila

I'm back in England for a few days and appalled at the amount of rain that's coming down.  I was in the West Country at the weekend, just in time for 40mm of rain in 3 hours and the next door village completely flooded.  Now I'm in Cumbria and the river, which should be only inches deep for summer holiday paddling, is brown, fast-flowing and several feet deep.  The Mill is surrounded by mud and puddles, but at least it doesn't look like this.

While everyone here is glued to the Olympics, rain on an Olympic scale is falling in the Philippines.  My friend Mel U, who writes a wonderful blog called The Reading Life, has sent me these pics of the floods there, which are now covering more than 80% of the entire country.  He lives in the capital Manila, fortunately on higher ground, but most of the city is now underwater and he has posted graphic pictures of the floods on his blog.  It's hard times even for those who aren't flooded, since shops and all essential services are underwater, schools closed and transport networks non-existent.  And it's still raining.
Do check out his blog and take a look.  We're thinking of you Mel.