Prolonged heavy rain and floods in the south and central part of Philippines have claimed 42 lives and destroying crops, homes and other infrastructures worth at least $23 million.
Most of the dead were found drowned or buried by the mudslides. Benito Ramos, the head of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), said the two new casualties had found drowned on the island province of Catanduanes in the Bicol Region in Luzon. 5 people were reported missing. Three of them were identified as fishermen. As reported previously, there were just 40 casualties reported by the authorities.
According to NTDTV, floods and mudslides have sacked almost 400,000 residents from their homes. On Tuesday, a student was drowned in Tacloban City when a heavy rain caused the water in a river to overflow.
Highways were all closed and many bridges across northern Samar Province have been crushed by the floods.
According to Ramos, approximately a third of the country’s 80 provinces have been affected by the floods. “They’ve destroyed roads and bridges, small rice and corn farms and houses made of light materials,” he said.
President Benigno Aquino will come to visit a number of flood-hit provinces in the central Bicol, eastern Visayas and Mindanao regions to estimate the damage.
The heavy rain in Philippines is similar to the situation in Queensland, Australia, in which floods were also devastating the state. The cause of the disaster could be La Nina weather pattern that occurs regularly.
The weather bureau of Philippines said the bad weather phenomenon will peak in March and last until May.
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