Some 200 people have been killed due to tropical storm “Vinta” (international name “Tembin”) that triggered heavy flooding and landslides that have ravaged towns and displaced thousands in Mindanao.
Vinta lashed Mindanao, home to 20 million people, with gusts of 125 kilometers per hour and torrential rain, wiping out at least one mountain village and prompting a massive rescue operation over the weekend.
Police said 144 people remained missing while more than 40,000 had fled to evacuation camps as Vinta roared out into West Philippine Sea yesterday.
A total of 70,000 have been displaced or affected by the tropical cyclone, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies that warned that continued heavy rains could hamper the search for survivors.
“People left everything behind when they fled for their lives,” IFRC Philippines operations and programs manager Patrick Elliott said.
The country is pummeled by major tropical cyclones every year, many of them deadly, but Mindanao tends to be less affected.
Footage shows vast tracks of land in Mindanao is now under brown water, often waste deep as local try to flee to safer ground.
Local police said 135 people were killed and 72 were missing in the northern section of Mindanao while 47 were dead and 72 missing in the impoverished Zamboanga Peninsula on its western side. Another 18 people perished in Lanao del Sur in the center of the island.
One of the places hit hardest by the storm was Barangay Dalama in Tubod, Lanao del Norte, which was virtually erased from the map.
Footage filmed by television network ABS-CBN showed houses destroyed or engulfed by floodwaters there and rescuers retrieving the body of a girl buried alive in a landslide.
Police, soldiers, and volunteers used shovels and their bare hands to dig through mud and debris in their search for survivors.
“The flood was already close and the people were not able to get out from their homes,” Armando Sangcopan, an elderly male survivor, told the station.
Rescuers said a total of 103 houses were carried off by rampaging floodwaters in Dalama.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration said Vinta was last spotted over the West Philippine Sea or 290 kilometers south of Pagasa Island in Palawan at around 9 a.m. yesterday.
However, PAGASA advised residents in Palawan of scattered to widespread moderate to occasional heavy rains, especially over the southern section.
Residents in these areas must take appropriate actions against flooding and landslides, coordinate with their local disaster risk reduction and management offices, and continue monitoring for updates, PAGASA said. (AFP and Ellalyn V. Ruiz)
