At least nine people have died and 11 are missing in the Philippines after a powerful typhoon accompanied by downpours that caused floods and landslides.
Heavy rains hit entire areas of Luzon Island, the most densely populated archipelago in the Philippines, yesterday before the tropical storm Compass hit the South China Sea. Four people have died in landslides in the mountainous province of Benget, and one person drowned in the coastal province of Cagayan, the National Disaster Management Agency said. Seven people are missing on the island of Luzon.
Eleven municipalities were flooded, but this morning everything calmed down, Cagayan’s public relations officer Rogelio Sanding told AFP. Major roads and ports are still flooded, but water has started to flow today, he said.
A tropical storm caused torrential floods in a village in Palawan province, on another island in the southwestern archipelago. Four people died and four went missing. 7 to 8 municipalities still remain flooded.
Every year, about 20 storms and typhoons hit the Philippines, destroying crops and infrastructure and forcing millions of people to live in poverty. The warmer atmosphere contains more water, and climate change can lead to extremely intense rains and floods.