Floods and landslides kill 17 in typhoon

Published on Saturday 21 June 2008 19:49

FLASH floods and landslides killed at least 17 people in the southern Philippines yesterday as heavy rains from Typhoon Fengshen inundated the region.

Ten people drowned after the Rifao River broke its banks, sweeping away three houses in a riverside village in South Upi in southern Maguindanao province, provincial administrator Norie Unas said. Five others were missing.

At least 40 were trapped on an island in the middle of the river, said town councillor Justina Betita. She appealed to the military to send a rescue helicopter, but there was no immediate response from the air force.

In nearby Cotabato city, a 50-year-old man and his 10-year-old grandson were killed when a landslide buried their hillside shanty, Mayor Muslimin Sema said.

Four other people drowned in Maguindanao, while in neighbouring Cotabato province authorities recovered the body of a farmer, one of three people reported missing, the mayors of two towns reported.

Officials said neck-deep flood waters forced the evacuation of 200 families in Sultan Kudarat township in southern Shariff Kabunsuan province near Cotabato city.

Winds of 88mph and gusts of up to 106mph were recorded when the typhoon made landfall near the southern tip of Samar island, south-east of Manila, late on Friday.

The typhoon's ring of rain clouds covered large areas of the main southern island of Mindanao, where the deaths were reported.

More than 117,000 people were evacuated from central Albay province but the typhoon missed the area.