Death toll from Typhoon Vamco rises to 67 in Philippines

Published : 15 Nov 2020, 13:36

Sahos Desk

Typhoon Vamco's death toll that swept the Philippines this week has risen to 67, the country's national disaster agency said on Sunday.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said that 12 individuals remain missing in the landslides and flash floods caused by Vamco, this year's 21st cyclone to hit the region.

Meanwhile in the northern Philippine provinces of Cagayan and Isabela, rescuers continue to offer food and clean water to the flood victims on Sundays.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to visit the area of Magat Dam, a massive rock-filled dam on the main island of Luzon, which has experienced extreme flooding.

Vamco and the cyclones dumped non-stop torrential rains before it forced Luzon dam operators to open the floodgates as the levels of the reservoir violated the spill marks.

Ascio Macalan, head of the Cagayan Provincial Disaster Risk Mitigation Agency, said that floods are subsiding.

Macalan said that after conducting rescue operations since Thursday, the government response shifted to relief operations on Sunday.

He added that before floodwaters increased, some people had refused to leave their homes. "That is our problem. They refuse to be evacuated and to sit on the roof of their homes,' he said.

On Sunday, many villages in the two provinces remain flooded, but the floodwaters have begun to recede, disaster official Jacinto Adviento of the town of Alcala said in an interview with local radio DZBB.

Adviento said rescuers are searching for people who are lost. There are at least 12,000 people in evacuation centers in the town of Alcala, he said.

Images of rescuers reclaiming bodies from the disaster area were released by the Philippine Coast Guard.

From Wednesday to Thursday, Typhoon Vamco lashed a significant part of Luzon, home to around half of the country's 110 million population and 70 percent of its economic activity.

 

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