At least 72 dead in Philippines after tropical storm

900,000 people had to be evacuated. More than 100 houses were buried by masses of earth in Maguindanao province. The extent of the destruction is devastating.

Residents of the village of Kawit wade through the floodwaters brought by the storm.

Jes Aznar/Getty Images

(dpa)

The number of dead and missing from the violent tropical storm “Nalgae” in the Philippines has continued to rise. By Monday, 101 dead and 66 missing had been recorded, said the Southeast Asian island nation’s civil protection agency. 70 people were injured in the floods and landslides. More than two million people are affected, of whom around 863,000 have had to leave their homes. More than 205,000 are currently housed in evacuation centers.

The storms initially wreaked havoc in the south of the Philippines at the end of last week. More than 100 houses were buried by masses of earth in Maguindanao province. “Nalgae” then moved north-west. The Western Visayas region and the provinces of Cavite, Laguna and Batangas south of the capital Manila were particularly affected.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. visited areas affected by the floods on Monday. “Our flood protection measures were completely overwhelmed by the floods,” he said. “That’s why I keep reminding disaster risk reduction agencies that the most important thing in preparing for a storm is preventive evacuation. We have to be ahead of the typhoon.”

The storm, which is called “Paeng” in the Philippines, left the country on Monday afternoon (local time) and headed towards southern China. He was traveling with wind speeds of 85 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 105 kilometers per hour. Meanwhile, a new tropical storm was moving toward the island nation. The weather agency expected that “Banyan” would weaken, but bring more rain in the south and east of the country.

The Philippines are hit by an average of about 20 typhoons each year. The worst storm to date, Haiyan, killed more than 6,300 people in November 2013.

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