Philippine flood toll rises
Mayor blames mountain logging for worsening tragedy but people also ignored warnings
A policeman carries a young girl across a flooded street in Cagayan City, Mindanao, in the Philippines yesterday. The Cagayan River flooded after heavy rains brought by Tropical Storm Tembin, which has so far claimed 133 lives.
The death toll from a tropical storm in the southern Philippines climbed swiftly to 133 yesterday, as rescuers pulled dozens of bodies from a swollen river.
Tropical storm Tembin has lashed the nation’s second-largest island of Mindanao since Friday, triggering flash floods and mudslides.
Most of the deaths were in the hard-hit provinces of Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur and on the Zamboanga Peninsula, said Romina Marasigan, a spokeswoman for the government’s disaster-response agency.
The Philippines is pummelled by 20 major storms a year, on average. But Mindanao, with 20 million people, is rarely hit.
Police, soldiers and volunteers used shovels to dig through mud and debris as they searched for bodies in the village of Dalama yesterday.
“The river rose and most of the homes were swept away. The village is no longer there,” police officer Gerry Parami said.
Rescuers retrieved 36 bodies from the Salog River in nearby Sapad town
The bodies in Sapad were swept downriver from a flooded town called Salvador, said Rando Salvacion, Sapad’s police chief. Authorities in Salvador said they had retrieved 17 other bodies upstream. Both towns are in Lanao del Norte.
“The people received ample warnings but as we are rarely hit by typhoons, people living near rivers did not take them seriously,” said Wilson Mislores, Salvador’s police chief.
The death toll for Mindanao’s Zamboanga peninsula also rose to 28 and police said 81 people were missing after mud and rocks swept down coastal communities in Sibuco and other fishing towns.
Landslides had blocked rescue and relief convoys to the impoverished region, officials said.
“The floodwaters from the mountain came down so fast and swept away people and houses,” said Bong Edding, mayor of Sibuco. “It’s really sad because Christmas is just a few days away but these things happen beyond our control.”
Mr Edding blamed years of logging in the mountains nearby for the tragedy that unfolded on Friday, adding that he and other officials would move to halt the logging operations.
Tembin struck less than a week after Tropical storm KaiTak left 54 dead and 24 missing in the central Philippines, straining the disaster-prone nation’s resources.
“It is unfortunate that another tropical cyclone made its presence felt so near Christmas,” said Harry Roque, a spokesman for president Rodrigo Duterte.
He pledged government aid to the affected communities but Ms Marasigan described the situation as challenging.
Thousands of villagers were moved to emergency shelters and thousands more were stranded in airports and seaports after the coastguard prohibited ferries from venturing out in the rough seas and several flights were cancelled.
An inter-island ferry sank off north-eastern Quezon province on Thursday, leaving at least five people dead. The 250 passengers and crew were rescued.
The weather service said Tembin was expected to hit Balabac, a fishing island of 40,000 people in the west, late yesterday with gusts of 115kph.