Police use a rubber boat to ferry trapped residents in Cagayan de Oro city, Philippines. Picture: AP Source: AP
- Tropical storm Washi ravages Philippines during early hours
- Floodwaters from swollen rivers swamp at least 10 villages
- Army mobilize 20,000 soldiers to conduct rescue efforts
THE death toll from tropical storm Washi has surged to 180 on with nearly 400 people missing in flash floods that ravaged the southern Philippines, officials said.
Regional military spokesmen told reporters 97 bodies were recovered in Cagayan de Oro, a major port on Mindanao island, and 75 were found in Iligan, a nearby southern port, accounting for most of the deaths.
They said 375 people were still missing from the two cities alone.
Forty-five people drowned on Mindanao island, including 40 in Iligan, while five were killed in a landslide in the east of the island, civil defense official Benito Ramos told AFP. Other reports put the death toll as high as 70.
A soldier helps a woman and her child killed during the passage of tropical storm Washi at a village in Iligan City. Picture: AFP
Source: AFP
Iligan mayor Lawrence Cruz described rampaging floodwaters from swollen rivers that swamped at least 10 villages on the city's outskirts.
"It happened so fast, at a time when people were fast asleep," Cruz told GMA television.
The station showed dramatic pictures of a family escaping out of the window of their home as floodwaters rose, and rescue workers in orange vests shepherding survivors to safety above chest-deep floodwaters.
The army mobilized 20,000 soldiers to help in rescue and evacuation efforts on Mindanao, which bore the brunt of the cyclone, Ramos told AFP.
Police pick up more residents trapped in flash floods in Cagayan de Oro city. Picture: AP
Source: AP
"The storm was moving slowly so it dumped a lot of rain over the area. The flooding is extensive," Ramos said.
Iligan tourism officer Pat Noel said waters began rising shortly before midnight Friday as people slept, sweeping houses made of light materials and their inhabitants along the riverbanks.
"Many of them told me they sought refuge on their rooftops," he said after joining the first wave of rescuers at daybreak.
"By the time I arrived they were sweeping thick mud out of their homes and the water on the street was down to knee level," Noel said, adding that two of three rivers that flow into the port of Iligan had overflowed.
A popular radio commentator was among those killed, he added.
Weather forecasters said the eye of the storm passed close to Dipolog city near Iligan early Saturday and Washi was now heading out to the Sulu Sea.
The large western island of Palawan to the northwest lies directly in the path of the storm, with winds of 65km/h.
The Philippines is struck by about 20 major storms annually, with most hitting Luzon, the largest and most populous island in the Southeast Asian archipelago.
Two typhoons, Nesat and Nalgae, hit the country within days of each other from late September, leaving more than 100 people dead, while tropical storm Banyan killed another eight people in October.
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