by Neil Jerome Morales
MANILA, April 13 (Reuters) – Philippine authorities are trying to help tens of thousands of people sheltering in evacuation centers on Wednesday after landslides caused by tropical storm Megi killed 56 people and dozens of missing.
More than 42,000 people were displaced and 200 injured when Megi, the first tropical cyclone of the year, hit the Philippines last weekend.
Search and rescue efforts are concentrated around the town of Baybay, a mountainous landslide-prone area in the eastern Philippines, which has accounted for the majority of casualties so far, according to police and rescue data. .
Images broadcast on social networks showed bodies, including those of children, extracted from the mud during rescue operations.
Survivors are still evacuating flooded areas, Armand Balilole, spokesman for the Coast Guard, said on Wednesday.
“The water supply systems are blocked here, so our problem is drinking water,” Norberto Oja, a Baybay health official, told DZRH radio. The city has also asked for help from neighboring regions to boost its care capacity, he added.
There is “help like food and medicine, but the problem is the management in the evacuation centers”, Baybay Mayor Jose Carlos Cari told DZMM radio.
The Philippines experiences an average of 20 tropical storms per year. In December, Category 5 Typhoon Rai ravaged the central provinces, killing 405 people and injuring nearly 1,400. (French version Elena Vardon; spoken by Kate Entringer)