Tropical storm triggers landslides in Philippines, four dead

MANILA: A tropical storm dumped heavy rain in the Philippines for a second day on Monday, causing floods and landslides that have left at least four people dead, including a nine-month-old girl, officials said.

The eastern city of Naga was among the hardest hit as Tropical Storm Yagi sliced off its coast overnight Sunday, leaving two people dead including the baby girl who drowned as floodwaters rose, rescuers said.

“The floods were above head height in some areas,” Joshua Tuazon of the city’s public safety office told AFP, adding that hundreds of residents had been rescued.

More than 300 people remained at evacuation camps Monday, with local officials saying the floodwaters in the city of 210,000 people were slow to ebb due to high tide.

Two landslides killed two people and damaged five houses in the central city of Cebu on Sunday, the local disaster office told AFP.

Yagi tore northwards off the coast of the main island of Luzon on Monday morning with sustained winds of 75 kilometres (47 miles) an hour, the state weather service said.

It was due to make landfall in the northern province of Isabela later in the day, with four towns and about 33,000 people directly in its path.

Local officials were advised to prepare communities to evacuate flood-prone areas, provincial disaster chief Constante Foronda told AFP.

The weather service also warned of a “minimal to moderate risk” of giant coastal waves threatening communities as the storm hits land.

Schools and government offices across the capital Manila were shut down for the day as a precaution, while ferry services in affected areas were suspended and 29 domestic flights were cancelled due to bad weather.

About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the Philippines or its surrounding waters each year, damaging homes and infrastructure and killing dozens of people.