Manila, The Philippines
Reuters
The feared death toll from a typhoon that battered the Philippines has risen to 31, officials said on Saturday, nearly triple the previous day’s number as rescue teams reach damaged areas and communication lines are restored.
Aerial view showing damaged houses in Surigao City, Surigao Del Norte Province, Philippines, on 17th December. PICTURE: Philippine Coast Guard/Handout via Reuters.
THOUSANDS DISPLACED BY FLOODS IN MALAYSIA
Torrential rains in Malaysia have caused flooding that has driven more than 11,000 people from their homes, closed dozens of roads and disrupted shipping, authorities said on Saturday.
More than 66,000 personnel from the police, army and fire department have been mobilised nationwide to help rescue people stranded by flood waters and take them to shelters, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob told a news conference late on Saturday.
Floods in Malaysia are common during the annual monsoon season between October and March, particularly on the country’s eastern coast. But the downpour that started on Friday morning and continued into Saturday hit worst in the western state of Selangor – Malaysia’s wealthiest and most populous region surrounding the capital Kuala Lumpur.
“It’s a bit chaotic in Selangor right now…in other states, preparations would be made earlier for the monsoon. But in Selangor, this happened almost suddenly,” Ismail Sabri said, adding that nearly 4,000 people in the state had been evacuated from their homes.
Authorities at Port Klang, the country’s largest harbour, said shipping operations were severely disrupted by the floods. Dozens of highways and roads were also closed. Videos posted on social media showed overflowing rivers, landslides, and cars submerged on abandoned streets.
Ashraf Noor Azam, a 26-year-old resident from the Selangor district of Shah Alam, said he had not expected the situation to be so serious and had been forced to leave his car on the side of a highway.
“After four hours stranded without help, and the flood isn’t getting better, we decided to walk in the flood,” he said in a tweet with a video showing three people walking.
Eight of the country’s 16 states and federal territories saw water levels rising to dangerous levels on Saturday, according to a government website tracking flood developments. The Meteorological Department warned that heavy rain in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, and several states would continue until Sunday.
– ROZANNA LATIFF and LIZ LEE, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia/Reuters
Four people have been confirmed dead after being hit by falling trees and another 27 people are feared to have died as a result of Typhoon Rai, the country’s disaster agency said in a statement.
Rai was the 15th and among the deadliest of the tropical storms to strike the Philippine archipelago this year, driving more than 300,000 people to shelter in evacuation centres. Many areas were still without power on Saturday.
The hard-hit central provinces of Cebu and Bohol declared a state of calamity to access disaster funds and imposed a price freeze on basic goods.
At one point a category 5 storm, the highest classification, Rai brought 195 kilometres per hour winds before making landfall on Thursday.
Typhoon Rai, locally named as Odette, swept out of the Philippines on Saturday afternoon after making nine destructive landfalls, the first of which was in the holiday island of Siargao.
“Odette was really strong. Almost 95 per cent of houses in Dinagat Island are without a roof,” Nilo Demerey, vice governor of Surigao del Norte province, told a local radio station.
Evacuation centres housed in churches, schools and gyms were also badly hit, Demerey added.
Some 309,000 people remain in evacuation centres, data from the disaster agency showed.
Many areas are still without power, and corn and rice plantations have been flooded, Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor told the same radio station.
Every year, about 20 tropical storms hit the Philippines, causing floods and landslides.
The South-East Asian nation, made up of more than 7,600 islands, is also prone to frequent earthquakes.
