Tens of thousands of people took refuge in evacuation centers.
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Landslides and flooding caused by tropical storm Megi have claimed at least 115 lives in the Philippines, according to the latest official reports published Thursday, April 14. 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.
Using diggers or bare hands, rescuers continued to dig through the mud in search of bodies in remote villages in the center of the archipelago. In Pilar, a coastal village of around 400 inhabitants in the central province of Leyte, most of the houses were for example pushed into the sea by a huge landslide.
Megi, known in the Philippines by its local name of Agaton, is the first major tropical storm to hit the country this year. It blocked thousands of travelers at the start of Holy Week, a traditional period of travel for Filipinos. As the planet is affected by global warming, storms and typhoons are becoming more powerful, scientists warn.
The Philippines, ranked among the countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, is hit by an average of 20 storms each year. In December 2021, Typhoon Rai devastated much of the country, leaving more than 400 dead and hundreds of thousands homeless. And in 2013 Typhoon Haiyan, the most powerful to have ever made landfall, left more than 7,300 people dead or missing.