Tropical Storm Penha kills four, displaces thousands across southern Philippines
Tropical Storm Penha unleashes heavy rains, causing flooding and a landslide in Mindanao that killed at least four people, displaced over 6,000 residents and stranded thousands of passengers at air and sea ports
A tropical storm set off flooding and a landslide in the southern Philippines, leaving at least four people dead, displacing more than 6,000 and trapping residents in houses in two flooded villages, officials said on Friday.
Tropical Storm Penha slammed ashore onto the southeastern province of Surigao del Sur from the Pacific late on Thursday. It was last tracked on Friday around noon off central Bohol province with sustained winds of up to 55 kilometres per hour and gusts of up to 70 kph, according to forecasters.
A couple and two children died on Thursday night when their shanty was hit by a landslide in a quarry area that was set off by torrential rains in a village in southern Cagayan de Oro city, Office of Civil Defense regional director Antonio Sugarol said.
In southern Iligan city, about 55 kilometres southwest of Cagayan de Oro, a resident called the DZMM radio network on Friday and pleaded to be rescued from the second floor of her house as floodwater rose and trapped her and three other family members.
“Rescuers are on the way,” Sugarol told the frantic resident over the radio, saying other families were being rescued in the villages of Mahayahay and Tubod in Iligan city.
More than 6,000 villagers were displaced due to the storm, including 5,800 who moved to evacuation centres in southern and central provinces. Classes were suspended in many areas, the Office of Civil Defence said.
Nearly 5,000 passengers and cargo workers were stranded in 94 seaports after interisland passenger ferries and cargo ships were temporarily prohibited from venturing into rough seas, the Philippine Coast Guard said.
The tropical storm has also forced the cancellation of dozens of flights in the Philippines, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at airports.
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap) reported that 32 flights had been cancelled since Thursday, affecting 7,737 travellers, according to local media outlet Inquirer.
The storm, which has a 660-kilometre-wide rain and wind band, hit ahead of summer when the least number of storms lash the Philippine archipelago, government forecaster Robert Badrina said.
Penha was forecast to weaken into a tropical depression later on Friday as it blows northwestward across central island provinces towards the western Palawan province, the country’s weather agency said.
The Philippines is battered by about 20 typhoons and storms each year. The country also is often hit by earthquakes and has more than a dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.