One dead as thousands flee storm in Philippines

TACLOBAN, Philippines: A boy drowned and tens of thousands were driven from their homes by floods as Tropical Storm Kai-Tak pounded the eastern Philippines yesterday, cutting off power and triggering landslides, officials said.

Kai-Tak, packing gusts of up to 110 kilometres an hour, hit the country’s third-largest island Samar in the afternoon and was forecast to slice across the rest of the central Philippines over the weekend, the state weather service said.

Military trucks drove through rising floodwaters on Samar and nearby Leyte island to rescue trapped residents, with more than 38,000 people now in evacuation centres, local officials said.

A two-year-old boy drowned in the Leyte town of Mahaplag, the civil defence office in the region said.

A spokeswoman for the national government’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council told AFP it is trying to confirm reports of two other deaths from landslides and floods.

Samar and Leyte, with a combined population of about 4.5 million, had borne the brunt of Super Typhoon Haiyan four years ago, which left more than 7,350 people dead or missing.

Strong winds toppled trees and power pylons, knocking out power through the region while floods, small landslides and rock falls blocked roads and buried some homes, local officials and witnesses said.

Farmland in the mainly rural region was also under water, while seven people were injured by landslides and flying objects, the regional civil defence office said in a report. — AFP