Hundreds feared dead as flash floods strike the Philippines
Posted Dec 17, 2011 09:10:39 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
More than 400 people have been killed after a devastating bout of flash flooding in the Philippines, according to the Red Cross.
Triggered by a tropical storm, tens of thousands of people fled to higher ground, but reports indicate many of the victims were asleep when the storm struck the Mindanao region, an island in the south of the nation.
With Tropical Storm Washi bringing heavy rain overnight, the flood waters rose at an alarming rate as rivers burst their banks, according to officials.
Large areas of the island were left without power, and reports of casualties are still coming in.
More than 10,000 soldiers are involved in the search-and-rescue effort, which is expected to last for some time.
The Associated Press is reporting the chief of the national disaster rescue agency, Benito Ramos, said that officials were still getting reports from the field and that casualties would likely rise.
Ramos said the dead included at least nine people in a single village in Lanao del Norte province, with floodwaters surging in the middle of the night and quickly reaching rooftops, trapping many residents and causing them to drown.
“Massive flooding had been reported over the region, especially in Iligan city and Cagayan de Oro city,” Ramos said.
Back-to-back typhoons in September left more than 100 people dead in the northern Philippines.
