Three dead, six missing as storm hits Mindanao

Atleast three people were killed and six others were missing after atropical storm struck the southern Philippines yesterday, unleashingfloods and landslides across a region of 20mn people, officials said.TropicalStorm Tembin hit the east coast of Mindanao, the archipelago nation’ssecond-largest island, before dawn with gusts of 125 kilometres an hourbringing torrential rain, the state weather office said.“We forcedhundreds of people to evacuate some villages, but the water rose swiftlyand our rescuers cannot reach other areas,” civil defence officerSaripada Pacasum of Lanao del Sur province, one of the hardest-hitareas, said.The Philippines lies on the Pacific typhoon belt andendures an average of 20 typhoons and storms each year, but Mindanao israrely hit by these cyclones.A small landslide buried several housesin the town of Tugaya and killed two children, with five other peoplemissing and believed trapped beneath the rubble, Pacasum said.Anotherlandslide buried four houses in the city of Valencia, killing an elderlywoman, said the city’s civil defence officer Junrey Vallejo.Rescuersused heavy machinery to dig in search of a girl who remained missing asof yesterday afternoon, he said. Police and civil defence officialsreported heavy flooding in several Mindanao towns and cities as Tembinweakened and swiftly moved across the region.Photos shared byrescuers on social media showed rampaging, mud-brown floodwaterssweeping down a highway in Lanao del Sur province, engulfing houses and avan, and people seeking refuge on the upper floors of their homes.Pacasum,the provincial civil defence officer, said among the flooded areas wasthe city of Marawi, recovering from five months of fighting betweentroops and  militants that left more than 1,100 people dead earlier thisyear.Police also reported widespread flooding in Cagayan de Oro,one of Mindanao’s largest cities.Electricity was cut across largeswathes of the island.Tembin struck less than a week after TropicalStorm Kai-Tak devastated the central Philippines, leaving more than 54dead and 24 missing.