#Manila: 53 people had been died by flood and landslides in the Philippines wrought by tropical storm Jangmi. The death toll had been confirmed by officials.
Local Mayor Stephany Uy-Tan said that 19 people died in a landslide that left homes and vehicles buried under rocks and mud in Catbalogan town in Samar province. He also said that the town had been surprised by the landslide.
She said, “We did not expect a deluge. We thought the hill where the landslide hit was tough as rocks.”
She also said, “There was no evacuation, people were just advised to prepare for possible landslides… we need to check communication systems to find out what went wrong.”
According to National Disaster Monitoring Agency, 121,737 people had been affected by Jangmi of which 80,186 are in evacuation centres.
The death toll by storm was nearly triple that of the last major storm to hit the country, Super Typhoon Hagupit, earlier this month.
Notify that Hagupit, with winds of 210 kilometres (130 miles) per hour, sparked a massive evacuation effort as it brought back memories of the strongest storm ever to hit the country, Super Typhoon Haiyan, whose 230-kilometre per hour winds left 7,350 dead or missing in 2013.
Governor Yevgeny Emano to DZMM radio said that floods flattened rice and corn fields resulting in an estimated USD 9 million in damages in Misamis Oriental province.
He said, “We were caught by surprise, we didn’t expect that we would be hit by the eye of the storm.”
The spokesperson of National Disaster Monitoring Agency Mina Marasigan had defended the government’s handling of the storm saying weather warnings were sent out even as Jangmi was still forming over the Pacific Ocean.
Bureau Report
Leave a Reply