Philippines Storm And Floods in Kill Nearly 200

MANILA, Philippines, Dec 15: A typhoon has hit the southern Philippines, triggering flash floods and landslides that killed nearly 180 people and forced about 100,000 from their homes, government and army officials said on Saturday.

Some of the dead were swept out at sea in the worst-hit coastal cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan in the Mindanao region, which is unaccustomed to the cyclones that are common elsewhere in the archipelago nation. Many of the victims were asleep when it struck Mindanao island, killing many in Iligan City and Cagayan de Oro.

Residents are rescued by volunteers Saturday following a flash flood that inundated Cagayan de Oro city, Philippines.

Tens of thousands of people have fled to higher ground, the authorities say. The provinces of Compostela Valley and Zamboanga del Norte were also hit, said Benito Ramos, chairman of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Army spokesman Colonel Leopoldo Galon said emergency workers had recovered 97 bodies, most of them children, who drowned in floods in Cagayan de Oro City. Large areas were left without power and some domestic flights were cancelled as winds of up to 90 km/h (55mph) swept across the island.

About 400 people are missing after the storm, which is called Sendong locally. More than 2,000 have been rescued, according to the Armed Forces of the Philippines. In Iligan, Lawrence Cruz, the city's mayor, described rampaging floodwaters from swollen rivers that swamped at least 10 villages on the city's outskirts.
Ayi Hernandez, a former congressman, said he and his family were resting in their home late Friday when they heard a loud "swooshing sound" and water quickly rose ankle deep inside his home. He decided to evacuate to a neighbor's two-story house.

The floodwaters were waist-high in some neighborhoods that do not usually experience flooding. Scores of residents escaped the floods by climbing onto the roofs of their homes, Cruz said. The national disaster agency said five miners were also buried in a landslide.