Dubai Telegraph - Death toll from Philippines landslides, floods rises to 80

EUR -
AED 3.815793
AFN 76.358734
ALL 99.523854
AMD 411.973954
ANG 1.872666
AOA 947.449075
ARS 1097.446155
AUD 1.653711
AWG 1.869965
AZN 1.764672
BAM 1.958664
BBD 2.097968
BDT 126.244626
BGN 1.954846
BHD 0.391523
BIF 3039.731556
BMD 1.038869
BND 1.406156
BOB 7.179603
BRL 5.987725
BSD 1.03902
BTN 90.239405
BWP 14.382241
BYN 3.400373
BYR 20361.838175
BZD 2.087183
CAD 1.483999
CDF 2981.554782
CHF 0.948981
CLF 0.025894
CLP 993.677075
CNY 7.593147
CNH 7.595843
COP 4330.00722
CRC 525.869057
CUC 1.038869
CUP 27.530036
CVE 110.899449
CZK 25.054449
DJF 184.627565
DKK 7.458998
DOP 64.722143
DZD 140.57042
EGP 52.589852
ERN 15.583039
ETB 131.15764
FJD 2.403737
FKP 0.855599
GBP 0.834861
GEL 2.929556
GGP 0.855599
GHS 16.05055
GIP 0.855599
GMD 74.280784
GNF 8992.45274
GTQ 8.021731
GYD 217.60929
HKD 8.09234
HNL 26.677969
HRK 7.666386
HTG 136.089023
HUF 402.165519
IDR 17016.679047
ILS 3.720352
IMP 0.855599
INR 90.381528
IQD 1360.918776
IRR 43723.411626
ISK 146.604917
JEP 0.855599
JMD 163.60927
JOD 0.737077
JPY 160.414894
KES 134.014368
KGS 90.849132
KHR 4165.865689
KMF 492.995616
KPW 934.982481
KRW 1509.066698
KWD 0.320948
KYD 0.865879
KZT 524.05397
LAK 22569.435631
LBP 93082.688783
LKR 308.711475
LRD 205.124338
LSL 19.250189
LTL 3.067511
LVL 0.628402
LYD 5.100913
MAD 10.370515
MDL 19.570904
MGA 4893.074438
MKD 61.451314
MMK 3374.206945
MNT 3530.077975
MOP 8.33571
MRU 41.720589
MUR 48.616106
MVR 16.000344
MWK 1804.51634
MXN 21.333051
MYR 4.645813
MZN 66.385957
NAD 19.249942
NGN 1564.68277
NIO 38.178607
NOK 11.701424
NPR 144.384239
NZD 1.840384
OMR 0.399983
PAB 1.039035
PEN 3.857838
PGK 4.164836
PHP 60.515698
PKR 289.844407
PLN 4.163948
PYG 8175.95693
QAR 3.782005
RON 4.977738
RSD 117.099265
RUB 97.653405
RWF 1455.455882
SAR 3.896328
SBD 8.775292
SCR 14.928996
SDG 624.360443
SEK 11.301469
SGD 1.405662
SHP 0.855599
SLE 23.687412
SLL 21784.569592
SOS 593.725927
SRD 36.573366
STD 21502.496931
SVC 9.091296
SYP 13507.378554
SZL 19.25005
THB 35.354282
TJS 11.351756
TMT 3.636043
TND 3.309316
TOP 2.433135
TRY 37.504638
TTD 7.049411
TWD 34.112292
TZS 2690.671414
UAH 43.466968
UGX 3822.590348
USD 1.038869
UYU 45.025848
UZS 13505.300538
VES 63.650812
VND 26558.693518
VUV 123.336649
WST 2.909693
XAF 656.917709
XAG 0.032253
XAU 0.000358
XCD 2.807596
XDR 0.795563
XOF 660.203985
XPF 119.331742
YER 257.639653
ZAR 19.246763
ZMK 9351.063501
ZMW 29.06793
ZWL 334.515489
  • RBGPF

    1.8700

    66.72

    +2.8%

  • RYCEF

    0.0600

    7.67

    +0.78%

  • CMSC

    -0.1800

    23.28

    -0.77%

  • BCC

    -4.6000

    118.72

    -3.87%

  • GSK

    0.0600

    36.13

    +0.17%

  • SCS

    -0.0500

    11.93

    -0.42%

  • AZN

    1.7000

    74.43

    +2.28%

  • NGG

    -0.9000

    60.58

    -1.49%

  • BTI

    0.2200

    42.74

    +0.51%

  • RELX

    0.1100

    51.44

    +0.21%

  • RIO

    0.3900

    62.04

    +0.63%

  • JRI

    -0.0200

    12.85

    -0.16%

  • VOD

    0.0900

    8.59

    +1.05%

  • CMSD

    -0.1800

    23.71

    -0.76%

  • BCE

    0.3800

    23.26

    +1.63%

  • BP

    0.1300

    34.68

    +0.37%

Death toll from Philippines landslides, floods rises to 80
Death toll from Philippines landslides, floods rises to 80 / Photo: Handout - 14th IB PHILIPPINE ARMY/AFP

Death toll from Philippines landslides, floods rises to 80

The death toll from landslides and floods in the Philippines rose to 80 on Wednesday with scores missing and feared dead, officials said, as rescuers dug up more bodies with bare hands and backhoes in crushed villages.

Text size:

Most of the deaths from tropical storm Megi -- the strongest to hit the archipelago this year -- were in the central province of Leyte, where a series of landslides devastated communities.

Twenty-six people died and around 150 were missing in the coastal village of Pilar, which is part of Abuyog municipality, after a torrent of mud and earth on Tuesday pushed houses into the sea and buried most of the settlement, authorities said.

"I have to be honest, we are no longer expecting survivors," Abuyog Mayor Lemuel Traya told AFP, adding that emergency personnel were now focused on the difficult task of retrieving bodies.

About 250 people were in evacuation centres after being rescued by boat after roads were cut by landslides, he said.

A number of villagers were also in hospital.

A rumbling sound like "a helicopter" alerted Ara Mae Canuto, 22, to the landslide hurtling towards her family's home in Pilar.

She said she tried to outrun it, but was swept into the water and nearly drowned.

"I swallowed dirt, and my ears and nose are full of mud," Canuto told AFP by telephone from her hospital bed. Her father died and her mother has not been found.

The disaster-prone region is regularly ravaged by storms -- including a direct hit from Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 -- with scientists warning they are becoming more powerful as the world gets warmer because of human-driven climate change.

Baybay City is also reeling after waves of sodden soil smashed into farming settlements over the weekend, killing at least 48 people and injuring over 100, local authorities said. Twenty-seven are still missing, they added.

Aerial photos showed a wide stretch of mud that had swept down a hill of coconut trees and engulfed Bunga village, where only a few rooftops poked through the now-transformed landscape.

"We were told to be on alert because a storm was coming, but they did not directly tell us we needed to evacuate," said Bunga farmworker Loderica Portarcos, 47, who lost 17 relatives and a friend in the landslide.

Portarcos braved heat and humidity as she advised a backhoe operator where to dig for three bodies still embedded in the soft soil which had started to smell of rotting flesh.

"Our dead relatives are all in the morgue, but there will be no time for a wake to mourn them because the mayor told us they smell bad," she said.

- 'Many of us died' -

Three people were also killed in the central province of Negros Oriental and three on the main southern island of Mindanao, according to the national disaster agency.

The death toll from Megi is expected to rise as rescue operations switch to recovering bodies.

Black body bags containing 26 victims from Pilar were laid out on sand in Abuyog for relatives to identify on Wednesday.

Abuyog police chief Captain James Mark Ruiz said more boats were needed. But getting access to the shore was difficult.

Photos posted by the Bureau of Fire Protection on Facebook showed buildings crushed or turned over by the force of the landslide and debris in the water.

"We're using fiber glass boats and there are steel bars exposed in the sea so it's very difficult," Abuyog Mayor Traya said, adding that the ground was unstable and "very risky".

While Pilar survivor Canuto counts herself lucky to be alive, she said "many of us died and a lot are missing too".

Whipping up seas, Megi forced dozens of ports to temporarily suspend operations, stranding thousands of people at the start of Holy Week, one of the busiest travel periods of the year in the Philippines.

It came four months after super typhoon Rai devastated swathes of the country, killing more than 400 and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.

The Philippines -- ranked among the most vulnerable nations to the impacts of climate change -- is hit by an average of 20 storms every year.

H.Hajar--DT