50 dead as storm lashes Philippines

Philippine Coast Guard and rescuers use boats to evacuate residents from flooded areas. Pic/AP

Flash floods and landslides set off by torrential rains left at least 50 people dead, including in a hard-hit southern Philippine province, where as many as 60 villagers are feared missing and buried in a huge mud slide laden with rocks, trees and debris, officials said on Saturday. At least 42 people were swept away by rampaging floodwaters and drowned or were hit by debris-filled mud slides in three towns in Maguindanao province, said Naguib Sinarimbo, the interior minister for a five-province Muslim autonomous region.

The worst storm impact so far was a mud slide that buried dozens of houses with as many as 60 people in the tribal village of Kusiong in Maguindanao's Datu Odin Sinsuat town, Sinarimbo told. Eleven bodies, mostly of children, were dug up on Friday by rescuers using spades in Kusiong, where about 80 families lived, he said.

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"That community will be our ground zero today," Sinarimbo said, adding that heavy equipment and more rescue workers, including army, police and volunteers have been deployed. An official death count of 67 in Maguindanao on Friday night was recalled by authorities after discovering some double counting of casualties.

More than 7,000 people were protectively evacuated away from the path of the storm, which was not expected to strengthen. About 20 typhoons and storms batter the Philippine archipelago each year. It is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a region along most of the Pacific Ocean rim where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur, making the nation one of the world's most disaster-prone.

20
No of typhoons, storms occurring in Philippines each year

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