MANILA: Rescuers raced on Wednesday to find dozens of people that were still missing after deadly floods and landslides hit the Philippines over the weekend.
Nearly 400,000 people have been affected by what has been one of the deadliest weather-related events in the country this year, as rain-induced flash floods swept across 10 provinces as Filipinos celebrated Christmas.
Disaster response authorities said casualties reported so far have increased to 25 from 17 on Tuesday, with most deaths caused by drowning from flash floods in the Northern Mindanao region, in the country’s south.
“As of today, we have 25 reported dead, mostly due to drowning. Then we have nine injured and 26 missing,” Diego Agustin Mariano, information officer at the Office of Civil Defense, told Arab News.
“As for the missing, the majority are fishermen from coastal villages in Catanduanes and Eastern Samar. They are now the subject of a search and rescue operation led by the Philippines Coast Guard.”
Over 81,400 people in the central southern provinces of Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan, Bukidnon, Camiguin, Misamis Occidental, Misamis Oriental, Lanao del Norte and in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao remained at evacuation centers.
“The others have returned to their respective homes as the situation improved,” Mariano said.
Unlike other deadly weather-related incidents in the country, the floods were not triggered by the tropical storms that regularly hit the Philippines.
The Christmas rains were caused by a shear line, an area where warm and cold winds meet, forming in the country’s south.
Multiple reports rank the Philippines as one of the countries most affected by and vulnerable to climate change. The archipelago nation has been experiencing an increase in highly destructive weather events for the past decade, as the world gets warmer.
