24 dead in Philippines landslides, flooding

At least 24 people have been killed in landslides and flooding across central and southern Philippines, authorities said yesterday, after tropical storm Megi dumped heavy rain and disrupted travel.More than 13,000 people fled to emergency shelters as the storm pounded the region on Sunday, the national disaster agency said, flooding houses, inundating fields, cutting off roads and knocking out power.The central province of Leyte was among the hardest hit, with landslides leaving 21 people dead in four villages, Baybay City disaster officer Rhyse Austero said.Leyte’s death toll adds to another three people killed on the main southern island of Mindanao, the national disaster agency said.Photos posted on Facebook and verified by AFP show several houses buried in mud up to the rooftops in Bunga, one of the affected villages in Leyte.“The rain was so hard, it was non-stop for more than 24 hours,” resident Hannah Cala Vitangcol said.The 26-year-old teacher fled with her family to a hotel yesterday after waking to find nearby homes had been covered in an avalanche of mud.“I was crying because I know the people buried there and I was also scared because there were mountains behind our house,” she said. Baybay City council member Mark Unlu-cay posted photos on Facebook showing survivors from another village, Kantagnos, being treated in hospital.“It seems like the entire community...was badly hit by the landslide and the riverflow,” he said. Unlu-cay said he feared the death toll could rise after receiving reports that other villages had also been inundated by the waves of earth and mud.Philippine Coast Guard and police personnel rescued people from their homes in the flooded town of Abuyog, carrying residents onto orange stretchers laid on floating boats.