Philippines Says 25 People Dead as Typhoon Triggered Landslides

At least 25 people were killed and several more missing after Typhoon Megi triggered landslides and flooded many areas in central and southern Philippines.

Twenty-two persons died in mudslides in Baybay City in Leyte province, while at least six more are missing, city police chief Lieutenant Colonel Joemen Collado said in an interview over DZBB radio late Monday.

Nearly 140,000 people have been affected by the storm locally known as Agaton, which made landfall over Eastern Samar province on April 10, the nation’s disaster risk-reduction and management council said.

The lowest storm alert remains hoisted in nine areas as of Tuesday morning, the weather bureau said. It’s forecast to stay around the eastern central islands for the next 6 to 12 hours, bringing moderate to heavy rains. The weather disturbance is expected to “deteriorate into a remnant low” within the next 24 hours and then assimilate with another storm named “Malakas,” which is unlikely to affect the country’s weather condition.

Megi is this year’s first tropical storm to hit the Philippines where about 20 cyclones pass through annually. In 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan killed more than 6,300 people in the Southeast Asian nation.