the bbc's kate mcgeown is with us now. >> believe it or not this was a road yesterday. the river is just over there. and it's completely burst its banks, and as you can tell it's completely flooded this road. and this is the main road between the rest of manila and mayor tina. so there are thousands of people stuck in their homes and 20,000 people have been evacuated as they have moved baseball courts and really anywhere the government can find that's dry to put them because really the rain has been like this for more than 24 hours now, and it's showing no signs of stopping. there was a typhoon a week ago. the authorities knew that and warned people. but these rains have been far more -- well, they have not stopped. and they have been really strong for more than 24 hours. and that is the thing that's so dangerous here. because the roads are underground were saturated before. and the authorities do seem to be trying to take as much control as they can. but it's flooded. so it's difficult for them to find enough places for people to go that aren't water logged. >> kate mc