People struggle through a flooded street in the town of Santa Cruz, south of Manila.

Tropical Storm Parma made landfall for the third time in Luzon in the northern Philippines, after killing 20 people and ruining rice crops when it first crossed the island five days ago.

The storm passed over Luzon after making landfall in the northeast on Oct. 3 as a typhoon, bringing more rain to areas drenched by Tropical Storm Ketsana, which hit the island a week earlier. Parma moved out over the South China Sea before turning a circle and crossing Luzon for a second time Wednesday.

The storm’s winds fell to 56 kilometers per hour from 65 kph before landfall. Parma’s winds were at about 148 kph when it first hit Luzon.

Parma caused landslides and flooding, which destroyed rice and other crops in the Philippines’ biggest rice-producing region, prompting the government to say it may import more than planned next year. The nation is the world’s biggest importer of the grain.

The Philippines is still reeling from Tropical Storm Ketsana, which dropped the most rain in more than 40 years on Manila and surrounding provinces on Sept. 26, resulting in flooding that destroyed homes, roads and businesses and killed 298, mostly by drowning.

At least 39 remain missing and about 317,000 still in evacuation centers, according to the National Disaster Coordinating Council.

Some areas remain flooded and a “state of national calamity” is still in effect, allowing the national government to fix prices of basic goods and local governments to tap emergency funds.

Ketsana hit Vietnam on Sept. 29, leaving 163 people and 11 missing as of 9 p.m. Oct. 5, the Vietnamese government said on its website Thursday.

Source: Bloomberg