Flash floods and landslides set off by torrential rains left not less than 47 people dead, including in a hard-hit southern Philippine province, where as many as 60 villagers are feared missing and buried in an enormous mudslide laden with rocks, trees and debris, officials said Saturday.
At the very least 42 people were swept away by rampaging floodwaters and drowned or were hit by debris-filled mudslides in three towns in Maguindanao province from Thursday night to early Friday, said Naguib Sinarimbo, the inside minister for a five-province Muslim autonomous region governed by former separatist guerrillas.
Five other people died elsewhere from the onslaught of Tropical Storm Nalgae, which slammed into the eastern province of Camarines Sur early Saturday, the federal government’s disaster-response agency said.
However the worst storm impact thus far was a mudslide that buried dozens of homes with as many as 60 people within the tribal village of Kusiong in Maguindanao’s Datu Odin Sinsuat town, Sinarimbo told The Associated Press by telephone, citing accounts from Kusiong villagers, who survived the flash flood and mudslide.
Eleven bodies, mostly of kids, were dug up Friday by rescuers using spades in Kusiong, where about 80 families lived, he said.
“That community might be our ground zero today,” Sinarimbo said, adding that heavy equipment and more rescue employees including army, police and volunteers have been deployed to accentuate the search and rescue work.
“It was hit by torrents of rainwater with mud, rocks and trees that washed out houses,” he said.
The coastal village, which lies on the foot of a mountain, is accessible by road, allowing more rescuers to be deployed Saturday to take care of considered one of the worst weather-related disasters to hit the country’s south in a long time, he said.
Citing reports from mayors, governors and disaster-response officials, Sinarimbo said 27 died mostly by drowning and landslides in Datu Odin Sinsuat town, 10 in Datu Blah Sinsuat town and five in Upi town, all in Maguindanao.
An official death count of 67 in Maguindanao on Friday night was recalled by authorities after discovering some double counting of casualties.
Army officials also reported not less than 42 storm deaths in Maguindanao Friday night and said in a press release that their forces were “continuing to rescue those trapped within the flood in collaboration with local disaster teams” and take the displaced in army trucks to evacuation camps.
The unusually heavy rains flooded several towns in Maguindanao and outlying provinces in a mountainous region with marshy plains, which turn out to be like a catch basin in a downpour. Floodwaters rapidly rose in lots of low-lying villages, forcing some residents to climb onto their roofs, where they were rescued by army troops, police and volunteers, Sinarimbo said.
The coast guard issued pictures of its rescuers, wading in chest-high brownish floodwaters to rescue the elderly and kids in Maguindanao. Lots of the swamped areas had not been flooded for years, including Cotabato city where Sinarimbo said his house was inundated.
The stormy weather in a big swath of the country prompted the coast guard to ban sea travel in dangerously rough seas as hundreds of thousands of Filipinos planned to travel over an extended weekend to go to the tombs of relatives and for family reunions on All Saints’ Day within the largely Roman Catholic nation. Several domestic flights have also been cancelled, stranding hundreds of passengers.
The wide rain bands of Nalgae, the sixteenth storm to hit the Philippine archipelago this yr, enabled it to dump rain within the country’s south although the storm was blowing farther north, government forecaster Sam Duran said.
At mid-day, the storm was tracked over the central province of Marinduque with sustained winds of 59 miles per hour and gusts of as much as 81 mph and moving southwestward toward the densely populated capital, Manila, forecasters said.
Dozens of provinces and cities were under storm alerts including Manila, which might be hit directly by the storm later Saturday, Vicente Manalo, who heads the federal government’s weather agency, told the AP.
Greater than 7,000 people were protectively evacuated away from the trail of the storm, which was not expected to strengthen right into a typhoon after it blew inland, government forecasters and other officials said.
About 20 typhoons and storms batter the Philippine archipelago annually. It’s positioned on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a region along a lot of the Pacific Ocean rim where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur, making the nation considered one of the world’s most disaster-prone.
Flash floods and landslides set off by torrential rains left not less than 47 people dead, including in a hard-hit southern Philippine province, where as many as 60 villagers are feared missing and buried in an enormous mudslide laden with rocks, trees and debris, officials said Saturday.
At the very least 42 people were swept away by rampaging floodwaters and drowned or were hit by debris-filled mudslides in three towns in Maguindanao province from Thursday night to early Friday, said Naguib Sinarimbo, the inside minister for a five-province Muslim autonomous region governed by former separatist guerrillas.
Five other people died elsewhere from the onslaught of Tropical Storm Nalgae, which slammed into the eastern province of Camarines Sur early Saturday, the federal government’s disaster-response agency said.
However the worst storm impact thus far was a mudslide that buried dozens of homes with as many as 60 people within the tribal village of Kusiong in Maguindanao’s Datu Odin Sinsuat town, Sinarimbo told The Associated Press by telephone, citing accounts from Kusiong villagers, who survived the flash flood and mudslide.
Eleven bodies, mostly of kids, were dug up Friday by rescuers using spades in Kusiong, where about 80 families lived, he said.
“That community might be our ground zero today,” Sinarimbo said, adding that heavy equipment and more rescue employees including army, police and volunteers have been deployed to accentuate the search and rescue work.
“It was hit by torrents of rainwater with mud, rocks and trees that washed out houses,” he said.
The coastal village, which lies on the foot of a mountain, is accessible by road, allowing more rescuers to be deployed Saturday to take care of considered one of the worst weather-related disasters to hit the country’s south in a long time, he said.
Citing reports from mayors, governors and disaster-response officials, Sinarimbo said 27 died mostly by drowning and landslides in Datu Odin Sinsuat town, 10 in Datu Blah Sinsuat town and five in Upi town, all in Maguindanao.
An official death count of 67 in Maguindanao on Friday night was recalled by authorities after discovering some double counting of casualties.
Army officials also reported not less than 42 storm deaths in Maguindanao Friday night and said in a press release that their forces were “continuing to rescue those trapped within the flood in collaboration with local disaster teams” and take the displaced in army trucks to evacuation camps.
The unusually heavy rains flooded several towns in Maguindanao and outlying provinces in a mountainous region with marshy plains, which turn out to be like a catch basin in a downpour. Floodwaters rapidly rose in lots of low-lying villages, forcing some residents to climb onto their roofs, where they were rescued by army troops, police and volunteers, Sinarimbo said.
The coast guard issued pictures of its rescuers, wading in chest-high brownish floodwaters to rescue the elderly and kids in Maguindanao. Lots of the swamped areas had not been flooded for years, including Cotabato city where Sinarimbo said his house was inundated.
The stormy weather in a big swath of the country prompted the coast guard to ban sea travel in dangerously rough seas as hundreds of thousands of Filipinos planned to travel over an extended weekend to go to the tombs of relatives and for family reunions on All Saints’ Day within the largely Roman Catholic nation. Several domestic flights have also been cancelled, stranding hundreds of passengers.
The wide rain bands of Nalgae, the sixteenth storm to hit the Philippine archipelago this yr, enabled it to dump rain within the country’s south although the storm was blowing farther north, government forecaster Sam Duran said.
At mid-day, the storm was tracked over the central province of Marinduque with sustained winds of 59 miles per hour and gusts of as much as 81 mph and moving southwestward toward the densely populated capital, Manila, forecasters said.
Dozens of provinces and cities were under storm alerts including Manila, which might be hit directly by the storm later Saturday, Vicente Manalo, who heads the federal government’s weather agency, told the AP.
Greater than 7,000 people were protectively evacuated away from the trail of the storm, which was not expected to strengthen right into a typhoon after it blew inland, government forecasters and other officials said.
About 20 typhoons and storms batter the Philippine archipelago annually. It’s positioned on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a region along a lot of the Pacific Ocean rim where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur, making the nation considered one of the world’s most disaster-prone.
