Manila/Kuala Lumpur: The death toll from flooding and landslides in the Philippines caused by tropical storm Jangmi rose to 53 on Wednesday, officials said, with some regions saying they were caught off-guard by the deluge.
Officials blamed complacency for the high number of casualties as the weather disturbance struck during a long holiday.
When Jangmi made landfall on Monday in Hinatuan, Surigao del Sur, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) cautioned Filipinos that the weather disturbance would be dumping “heavy to intense” (15-30 mm) amount of rain per hour. However, despite warnings, there was still a relatively high number of casualties.
“We did not expect a deluge. We thought the hill where the landslide hit was tough as rocks,” local Mayor Stephany Uy-Tan said.
“There was no evacuation, people were just advised to prepare for possible landslides,” she said. “We need to check communication systems to find out what went wrong.”
Jangmi affected 121,737 people, of which 80,186 are in evacuation centres, according to the national disaster monitoring agency.
Baltazar Tribunalo, head of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (PDRRM), blamed local government units tasked with the preparations for the typhoon’s effects with some officials still on Christmas vacation.
Jangmi caused massive flooding in Cebu and Bohol, submerging some areas under two metres of flood water.
In the village of Mercedes in Catbalogan City, Samar, a boy was rescued alive from the debris of a mudslide.
The video of the boy, which was being pulled out of the debris by other boys, garnered 24,400 views on Facebook after it was posted by Rommel Rutor of radio station dyMS Catbalogan.
Meanwhile, at least 21 people have been killed and eight others are missing after the worst flooding in decades across Malaysia’s northeast, police said on Wednesday, with almost a quarter of a million people displaced.
They said 14 of the deaths were recorded in the worst-hit state of Kelantan, where some 158,476 people were displaced.
Four people died in Terengganu and three in Pahang state. There are also reports of outbreaks of flu and diarrhoea.
The number forced from their homes in the other affected states — Pahang, Perak, Terengganu and Johor — totalled 83,570.
Forecasters Wednesday predicted clear skies for the next three days.
“But we are still in the northeast monsoon period until March. We could expect heavy showers later in the week,” a meteorological department official said.
Floodwaters have began to subside in many areas but authorities are bracing for possible disease outbreaks.
Noor Hisham Abdullah, health ministry director-general, said there was no major rise in flood-related diseases at the moment.
“We anticipate that flood victims will come in masses seeking care once the floodwaters start to recede,” he said in a Facebook posting.
Rajbans Singh, president of the Malaysian Wellness Society, told AFP that floods can increase the transmission of typhoid fever, cholera, leptospirosis, malaria and dengue.
The government has been criticised for it slow response after many victims were caught stranded in outlying areas without food and clean water.
— With inputs from agencies
