98 dead, 63 missing in floods, landslides in Philippines

The death toll from floods and landslides caused by a tropical storm in the Philippines has hit 98, with 63 missing, the national disaster agency said on Monday.

The agency added that 69 people were injured as tropical storm Nalgae battered the Philippines over the weekend.

More than 1.9 million people were affected, out of which 975,000 were displaced.

More than 309,000 were staying in evacuation centres, the agency said.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr visited flood-stricken areas in Cavite Province on Monday, bringing additional relief supplies.

He stressed the need for pre-emptive evacuation ahead of storms to ensure the safety of residents.

“Our flood control measures were overwhelmed by the floods.

“The water overflowed from the dikes and inundated towns.

“That’s why I keep reminding disaster risk reduction agencies that the most important thing when preparing for a storm is that we have pre-emptive evacuations.

“We need to be ahead of the typhoon so that even if the typhoon hits an area, the residents will not be victimised,” he said.

Marcos Jr earlier lamented the high death toll from the floods and landslides in Maguindanao Province, asking authorities why the residents were not evacuated before the calamity.

Fifty-three of the dead were from the southern province of Maguindanao, where floods and landslides buried more than 100 houses.

According to the report 22 people are still missing in the province.

Nineteen were killed in the Western Visayas Region, while 12 died in the Provinces of Cavite, Laguna and Batangas, just south of Manila.

Fourteen other deaths were reported in other eastern and southern provinces battered by the storm.

Twenty-nine people were reported missing in the Eastern Visayas Region, the disaster agency said.

Nalgae was expected to move off the Philippines late Monday, the weather bureau said.

It was packing maximum sustained winds of 85 kilometres an hour (km/h) and gusts of up to 105 km/h.

The Philippines archipelago was hit by an average of 20 tropical cyclones each year.