The death toll from the strongest storm to hit the Philippines this year rose to 42 yesterday, as rescuers recovered more bodies from villages devastated by rain-induced landslides.
Emergency personnel suspended the search for survivors around Baybay City, in the central province of Leyte, in the late afternoon as it was “too dangerous” to continue in the dark, Baybay City public information officer Marissa Miguel Cano told reporters.
Earlier, rescuers hampered by mud and rain used their bare hands and shovels to search for survivors of landslides that smashed into villages in the central Philippines.
Photo: EPA-EFE / Philippine Coast Guard
More than 17,000 people fled their homes as the storm pummeled the disaster-prone region, flooding houses, severing roads and knocking out power.
Landslides slammed into multiple villages around Baybay City — the hardest hit by the storm — local authorities said.
Three people were also killed in the central province of Negros Oriental and three on the main southern island of Mindanao, the national disaster agency said.
Most of the deaths in Leyte were in the mountainous village of Mailhi, Philippine Army Captain Kaharudin Cadil said.
“It was a mud flash that buried houses. We recovered most of the bodies embedded in the mud,” said Cadil, spokesman for the 802nd Infantry Brigade.
Drone footage shared on Facebook showed a wide stretch of mud that had swept down a hill of coconut trees and engulfed Bunga, which had been reduced to a few rooftops poking through the mud.
“It’s supposed to be the dry season, but maybe climate change has upended that,” Cano said.
The hilly region of corn, rice and coconut farms was prone to landslides, but they were usually small and not fatal, Cano added.
Apple Sheena Bayno was forced to flee after her house in Baybay City when it flooded.
She said her family was still recovering from a super typhoon in December.
“We’re still fixing our house and yet it’s being hit again, so I was getting anxious,” she said.
Rescue efforts were also focused on the nearby village of Kantagnos, which an official said had been hit by two landslides.
“There was a small landslide and some people were able to run to safety, and then a big one followed which covered the entire village,” Baybay City Mayor Jose Carlos Cari told local broadcaster DZMM Teleradyo.
Some residents escaped or were pulled out of the mud alive, but many were still feared trapped.
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