Manila: One was killed, four others were injured and 17,374 families or 87,139 people in 51 villages in two regions in the southern Philippines were affected by floods and landslides due to tropical depression ‘Crising’, officials said.
Francisco Digayon drowned while crossing Taytayan River in Andap village in Compostela Valley as Crising hit with maximum winds of 45 kilometre per hour, said Undersecretary Eduardo del Rosario, also head of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
Anatallo Nacua, 29, Maria Nacua, 20, Dodong Nacua, 8, and Boy Nacua, 9 months old, were injured when their home was buried by a landslide in Malasalug Village, Sapad town, Lanao del Norte, del Rosario said, adding the number of dead and injured might rise.
Many affected families were forced to seek higher ground to avoid being swept away by flash floods, del Rosario said. Hundreds were also stranded because air and sea voyages were cancelled, he added.
Some displaced residents were in seven evacuation centres that were established earlier. The same region was devastated by Typhoon Bopha which killed almost 2,000 and displaced more than half a million people in early December.
Crising is over the Sulu Sea and could merge with a potential cyclone which was located 220 kilometres northwest of Puerto Princesa, in Palawan, southwestern Philippine, the state weather bureau said.
Crising’s rainfall, estimated at 5 to 15mm per hour, has a diameter of 300 kilometres, the weather station said.
Public storm warning signal No.1 was hoisted over Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, Basilan, Sulu and Southern Palawan, in the south.
