(Abuyog) Landslides and flooding caused by tropical storm megi killed at least 133 in the Philippines, according to the latest official reports released Thursday.
Posted at 6:38 a.m.
Dozens of people are still missing as the storm, the strongest to hit the archipelago this year, has forced tens of thousands of people to seek refuge in evacuation centres.
In the central province of Leyte, the worst affected, devastating landslides have destroyed farming and fishing communities, sweeping away homes and transforming the landscape.
The disaster-prone region is regularly ravaged by storms – including Super Typhoon Haiyan which hit it in 2013 – and scientists warn they are getting more powerful as the planet heats up due to climate change. by the man.
Rescuers from the municipality of Abuyog recovered dozens of bodies from a coastal village destroyed by a landslide on Tuesday.
At least 42 people were killed in landslides in three villages in the municipality, police said. Another person drowned.
“Only Survivor”
Bad weather and thick mud complicated rescue efforts in Pilar, where the ground was unstable.
The majority of deaths took place in Pilar, and at least 28 bodies were transported to the municipal building by boat, as the roads leading to the village were impassable.
Rescuers are also combing the coastline, bodies having been carried miles away by sea currents.
“It won’t end anytime soon, it could last for days,” Abuyog mayor Lemuel Traya warned, noting that more than 100 people are still missing and there is little hope of finding them. life.
Most of those who died had tried to reach the mountain to avoid flash floods, villagers told AFP.
“It sounded like a helicopter,” said Anacleta Canuto, 44, a town councilor from Pilar, describing the noise made by the landslide.
Mme Canuto, her husband and their two children survived, but lost at least nine loved ones.
Santiago Dahonog, a 38-year-old fisherman from Pilar, told how he rushed into the sea with his two siblings and his nephew as the landslide hurtled towards them.
“We got out of the house, ran towards the water and started swimming,” he told AFP. “I am the only survivor”.
Last weekend, another 86 people were killed and dozens injured in vegetable, rice and coconut-growing villages around the town of Baybay, according to local authorities.
The hardest hit village is Kantagnos, where 32 people died.
In the nearby village of Bunga, 17 people perished as a mudslide rolled down a hill and engulfed the community. Only a few roofs are now visible in the mud.
Three people also drowned on the main southern island of Mindanao, the national disaster agency said in its latest update.
megi struck at the start of Holy Week, one of the most important holidays in the predominantly Catholic country, when thousands of people travel to the Philippines to visit loved ones.
The storm arrived four months after a super typhoon devastated entire areas of the country, killing more than 400 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.
The Philippines – ranked among the nations most vulnerable to the effects of climate change – are hit by an average of 20 storms a year.