MANILA, Philippines - The death toll in the landslide- and flood-stricken provinces in eastern Visayas has risen to nine, with thousands of villagers displaced, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said yesterday.
Benito Ramos, the council’s executive director and Office of Civil Defense administrator, said more than 14,000 residents were evacuated in the Samar and Leyte provinces with the help of the Army and the Philippine National Police.
Last Thursday, a family of seven in Tacloban City was buried alive in a landslide.
Mayor Alfred Romualdez has declared the entire city under a state of calamity, as flooding has affected nearly 4,000 families.
Also in the same situation is the Leyte town of Palo where, according to Mayor Remedios Petilla, 33 barangays are flooded.
The new fatalities were reported in Palo town and in Bohol where villages in the towns of Jagna, Bilar and Dimiao were flooded. A state of calamity has been declared in Barangay Balbalan in Dimiao.
The Philippine Coast Guard yesterday dispatched 25 divers and medical personnel to extend help in Tacloban and other parts of Leyte.
Ramos said eastern Visayas and parts of Mindanao continued to experience bad weather.
Heavy flooding has rendered impassable several roads in Southern Leyte, Samar, and Eastern Samar. – Jaime Laude, Miriam Desacada, Evelyn Macairan