Eight killed as Tropical storm Sanba hits south and central Philippines

Manila: Eight people, including a two-month old baby boy and a 10-year old girl, died after a tropical storm poured 300mm rains on the eastern to the western seaboards of central and southern Philippines for three days, authorities said

Roselin Gabanigno, 10; Jaime Conjurado, 75; and an unidentified person died by drowning and from landslides, respectively, in three separate villages in Placer town, Surigao del Norte, southern Philippines on Tuesday morning, hours after tropical storm Sanba, locally known as Basyang, made a landfall in nearby Surigao del Sur, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said in a belated report on Wednesday.

Christian Jake Tumandao, two months old, died in a landslide in San Pedro village., Albuera, Leyte, central Philippines on Tuesday afternoon, said the NDRRMC, adding the baby’s mother Janessa and siblings, Kim, 7, and Rex, 3, forgot to bring the infant with them as they ran away from their home following a landslide.

Four were buried in a landslide in Gamuton village, Carrascal, a mining town, in Surigao del Sur, immediately after Sanba’s landfall there on Tuesday morning, said the NDRRMC, adding that many residents were evacuated from endangered mountainous slopes and river banks in affected areas of central and southern Philippines.

Sanba made another landfall on parts of Palawan province, southwest Philippines on Wednesday, said Pagasa, the state weather station, adding that although Sanba has weakened with sustained winds at 45 kilometre per hour near the centre and gustiness of up to 60 kilometre per hour, it continued to pour rains, estimated at 200 to 300 millimetre, on Mindanao and in Visayas.

Sanba was seen 310 kilometre west southwest of Dumaguete, central Philippines, and 255 kilometre south of Cuyo, Palawan, southwest Philippines on Wednesday. It is expected to exit to the South China Sea, on the country’s western seaboard, at 26 kilometre per hour, either on Friday or on Saturday. It entered the Philippines eastern seaboard — from the Pacific Ocean_- on February 11, Pagasa said.

Sanba is the second storm to hit the Philippines in 2018.

Twenty typhoons damage the Philippines every year. Tropical Storm Tembin killed 240 people in the south in December 2017. Four-grade storm, Typhoon Haiyan, killed 7.400 in central Philippines in November 2013.