Flash floods and landslides set off by torrential rain have left at least 50 people dead in the Philippines.
Dozens of people are feared missing, including 60 in Maguindanao province after homes were buried in a huge mudslide laden with rocks, trees and debris, officials said.
At least 42 people were swept away by floodwaters and drowned or were hit by debris-filled mudslides in three towns in the province from Thursday night to early Friday, said Naguib Sinarimbo, the interior minister for a five-province Muslim autonomous region governed by former separatist guerrillas.
Eight other people died elsewhere in the country from the onslaught of Tropical Storm Nalgae, which slammed into the eastern province of Camarines Sur early on Saturday, the government’s disaster response agency said.
The worst impact so far was a mudslide that buried dozens of houses with as many as 60 people in the tribal village of Kusiong in Maguindanao’s Datu Odin Sinsuat town, Mr Sinarimbo told the Associated Press, citing accounts from villagers who survived the flash flood and mudslide.
Army Lieutenant Colonel Dennis Almorato, who went to the mudslide-hit community on Saturday, said the muddy deluge buried about 60 rural houses over about 12 acres. He gave no estimate of how many villagers may have been buried in the mudslide, which he described as “overwhelming”.
At least 13 bodies, mostly of children, were dug up on Friday and Saturday by rescuers in Kusiong, Mr Sinarimbo said.
“That community will be our ground zero today,” he said, adding that heavy equipment and more workers had been deployed to intensify the search and rescue work.
“It was hit by torrents of rainwater with mud, rocks and trees that washed out houses.”
The coastal village, which lies at the foot of a mountain, is accessible by road, allowing more rescuers to be deployed on Saturday to deal with one of the worst weather-related disasters to hit the country’s south in decades, he said.
Citing reports from mayors, governors and disaster response officials, Mr Sinarimbo said 27 died mostly by drowning and landslides in Datu Odin Sinsuat town, 10 in Datu Blah Sinsuat town and five in Upi town, all in Maguindanao.
The unusually heavy rain flooded several towns in Maguindanao and outlying provinces in a mountainous region with marshy plains, which become like a catch basin in a downpour.
Floodwaters rose rapidly in many low-lying villages, forcing residents to climb on to their roofs, where they were rescued by army troops, police and volunteers, Mr Sinarimbo said.
The coastguard issued pictures of rescuers wading in chest-high, brownish floodwaters to rescue the elderly and children in Maguindanao. Many of the swamped areas had not been flooded for years, including Cotabato city, where Mr Sinarimbo said his house was inundated.
The stormy weather in a large area of the country prompted the coastguard to prohibit sea travel in dangerously rough seas as millions of Filipinos planned to travel over a long weekend for visits to relatives’ tombs and for family reunions on All Saints’ Day in the largely Roman Catholic nation.
Several domestic flights have also been cancelled, stranding thousands of passengers.
More than 158,000 people in several provinces were protectively evacuated away from the path of the storm, officials said.
