Manila, Oct 28, (dpa/GNA) – Forty-two people were killed in floods and landslides, brought about by a tropical storm in a southern Philippine province, local government and disaster officials said on Friday.
The deaths were reported in three towns in Maguindanao province, 975 kilometres south of Manila, according to Naguib Sinarimbo, interior minister of the Muslim autonomous region in the southern Philippines.
Twenty-seven of the dead were from the town of Datu Odin Sinsuat, while 10 were from the nearby town of Datu Blah Sinsuat, and another five drowned in Upi town, he said.
At least 16 were reported missing from the floods and landslides, which affected about 67,000 residents, Sinarimbo said.
“Most of the victims died from flash floods, and then landslides that buried houses,” said Nasrullah Imam, head of the provincial disaster risk reduction and manage office.
“Some of the victims were trapped in their homes,” he added
Raging brown, muddy floodwaters reached up to rooftops in the affected areas, photos and footage on social media showed.
Photos from the coastguard showed rescue teams retrieving bodies, stuck in an avalanche of mud and debris in Datu Odin Sinsuat. Bodies were lined up in a public school where the dead were brought for identification.
In other parts of Maguindanao province, rescue teams used rubber boats to reach residents trapped in their submerged houses.
The weather bureau said tropical storm Nalgae, was expected to bring heavy rainfall over the Philippines until the weekend, when millions of Filipinos were expected to travel ahead of All Saints’ Day, locally called Undas, the traditional day for Filipinos to visit the graves of their dead relatives.
The storm intensified as it moved closer to the country’s eastern coast, packing maximum sustained winds of 85 kilometres per hour (km/h) and gusts of up to 105 km/h. It was moving west-north-west at 25 km/h.
Dozens of domestic flights have been cancelled, while ferry service has been suspended across the country’s islands, stranding more than 5,700 passengers, according to the coastguard.
GNA