More than 120 people die as flooding from tropical storm sets off landslides and flash floods in Philippines

‘The floodwaters from the mountain came down so fast and swept away people and houses’

A tropical storm unleashed flash floods and set off landslides in the southern Philippines leaving at least 120 people dead and over 160 others missing, officials said.

Romina Marasigan of the government’s disaster-response agency said landslides and flash floods triggered by Tropical Storm Tembin inflicted most of the deaths in the hard-hit provinces of Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur and on the Zamboanga Peninsula.

Officials were getting more details to validate the reported casualties, Mr Marasigan said. It is the latest disaster to hit the Philippines, which is struck by about 20 typhoons and storms each year.

“It is unfortunate that another tropical cyclone, Vinta, made its presence felt so near Christmas,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr said, adding that food packs and other aid were being distributed in storm-hit communities.

Mayor Bong Edding of Zamboanga del Norte province’s Sibuco town said a search and rescue operation was under way for more than 30 people swept away by flash floods in the fishing village of Anungan. Five bodies have been recovered so far in the village.

“The floodwaters from the mountain came down so fast and swept away people and houses,” Mr Edding said.

He blamed years of logging in the mountains near Anungan for the tragedy that unfolded on Friday, adding that he and other officials would move to halt the logging operations.

The rest of the deaths were reported in Lanao del Norte, where floodwaters from a mountain also swept away several riverside houses and villagers, and Lanao del Sur, police and officials said.

Thousands of villagers moved to emergency shelters and thousands more were stranded in airports and seaports after the coast guard 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 after being lashed by fierce winds and big waves, leaving at least five dead. More than 250 passengers and crewmen were rescued.

Tembin, known locally as Vinta, was packing maximum sustained winds of 50mph and gusts of up to 59mph, and is forecast to blow away from the southern Philippines on Sunday toward the South China Sea, moving closer to Vietnam.

Earlier in the week, a previous tropical storm left more than 50 people dead and 31 others missing, mostly due to landslides, and damaged more than 10,000 houses in the central Philippines before weakening and blowing into the South China Sea.

Among the areas battered by Tembin was Marawi, a lakeside city in Lanao del Sur that is still recovering from a five-month siege by pro-Isis extremists that left more than 1,000 people dead.

PA