Typhoon drives thousands into shelters in Philippines

TENS of thousands of villagers in the southern Philippines spent their Christmas morning in emergency shelters as the region dealt with the aftermath of a powerful storm that left more than 150 people dead.

Tropical Storm Tembin unleashed landslides and flash floods mostly in the provinces of Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur and on the Zamboanga Peninsula. It strengthened into a typhoon before blowing out of the country on Sunday into the South China Sea towards Vietnam.

The death toll stood at 164 yesterday afternoon with another 171 people missing, Marina Marasigan of the government’s disaster-response agency said at a news conference. More than 97,000 people remain in 261 evacuation centres across the south, while nearly 85,000 more people are displaced and staying elsewhere.

Intense rainfall in the mountains most likely caused landslides that blocked rainwater, Ms Marasigan said. When the naturally formed dams broke from the pressure, torrents of water smashed into the villages below.

Officials warned villagers in areas at risk to evacuate as Tembin approached and the government wanted to find out what caused the widespread storm deaths, Ms Marasigan said. “We don’t want to be dragging people out of their homes days before Christmas but it’s best to convince them to quietly understand the importance of why they are being evacuated.”

The predominantly Roman Catholic nation has been hit by a series of disaster this week. A passenger bus collided with a van carrying pilgrims to Christmas Mass yesterday, leaving 20 people dead and more than two dozen injured, and a fire at a shopping mall in southern Davao city on Sunday killed at least 37. An inter-island ferry sank off northeastern Quezon province on Thursday, leaving at least five people dead, and a more than 50 were killed in a tropical storm earlier in the week.