Over 100 dead, dozens missing in storm-ravaged Philippines

Name: Villagers buried alive in deadly landslide in the Philippines triggered by Tropical Storm Nalgae
Uploaded: 2022-10-31T08:01:49.000Z
Duration: 1 min 46 s
Description: Villagers buried alive in deadly landslide in the Philippines triggered by Tropical Storm Nalgae

About half of the casualties occurred in Maguindanao in the Bangsamoro autonomous region

Close to a million people were forced to flee their homes due to unusually heavy rains set off by Tropical Storm Nalgae

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Aerial view of flood-inundated houses in Alibagu, Ilagan city, Isabela province on Monday after Tropical Storm Nalgae hit the region. Photo: AFP

Associated Press

Published: 4:01pm, 31 Oct 2022

More than 100 people have died in one of the most destructive storms to lash the Philippines this year with dozens more feared missing after villagers fled in the wrong direction and got buried in a boulder-laden mudslide. Almost two million others were swamped by floods in several provinces, officials said on Monday.

At least 53 of 105 people who died – mostly in flooding and landslides – were from Maguindanao in the Bangsamoro autonomous region, which was swamped by unusually heavy rains set off by Tropical Storm Nalgae. The storm blew out of the country and into the South China Sea on Sunday, leaving a trail of destruction in a large swathe of the archipelago.

A large contingent of rescuers with bulldozers and backhoes resumed retrieval work in southern Kusiong village in the hard-hit province of Maguindanao, where as many as 80 to 100 people, including entire families, are feared to have been buried by a boulder-laden mudslide or swept away by flash floods that started overnight on Thursday, said Naguib Sinarimbo, the interior minister for the Bangsamoro autonomous region run by former separatist guerillas under a peace pact.

The government’s main disaster-response agency also reported 69 people were injured and at least 63 others remain missing.

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Villagers buried alive in deadly landslide in the Philippines triggered by Tropical Storm Nalgae

More than 1.9 million people were lashed by the storm, including more than 975,000 villagers who fled to evacuation centres or homes of relatives. More than 4,100 houses and 16,260 hectares (40,180 acres) of rice and other crops were damaged by floodwaters at a time when the country was bracing for a looming food crisis because of global supply disruptions, officials said.

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