NDRRMC: At least 21 dead due to Seniang’s onslaught

At least 21 people were confirmed dead from the onslaught of Tropical Storm Seniang, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) executive director Undersecretary Alexander Pama said on Tuesday night.

In an interview with GMA radio dzBB, Pama said that in Ronda town in Cebu, eight people were confirmed dead due to flash floods.

Pama said five more were confirmed killed in a landslide in Tanauan, Leyte.

In interviews with Agence France-Presse, Office of Civil Defense Region 8 director Blanche Gobenciong said that the five in Tanauan were killed when the landslide buried a house, while OCD officer Lemuel Tabada said that the eight people killed in Ronda included three eight-year-old children. They drowned after raging floodwaters washed away their shanty homes.

Two teenage boys, meanwhile, died from electrocution while wading through floodwaters at Loon in Bohol province, said OCD's Allen Cabaron.

 

Casualties were also recorded from a landslide that hit five barangays in Catbalogan City, Samar. The NDRRMC was still determining the names and the exact number of fatalities, said Pama.

 

In separate phone interview, Alma Padliago, staff on-duty at the NDRRMC central office operations center, told GMA News Online that the number of casualties could still rise above 21 as reports from various provincial and municipal offices (PDRRMCs and MDRRMOs) have just reached the central office.

 

“Yes, may 21 casualties na tayo na recorded, although yung identity nila vina-validate pa namin. And as we are talking now, may mga kakapasok lang na casualty report. Iko-consolidate at iva-validate pa namin itong mga report na ito and we will be posting an updated report in a while,” Padliago said.

 

However, Agence France-Presse, quoting officials, reported that at least 30 people have already been killed in landslides and flash floods as Seniang slowly crossed the southern and central Philippines, dumping heavy rain in the region for a second day Tuesday.

 

Rivers burst their banks and submerged villages in floods "neck-deep" while hillsides crashed onto homes and highways, officials said.

 

Some residents in vulnerable areas ignored evacuation warnings, Stephany Uy-Tan, mayor of Catbalogan in Samar, told DZMM radio.

 

"The rains were really strong and people thought the storm won't be too strong based on the news," she said.

 

Twelve people were killed after a landslide buried two vans on a mountainside highway in Catbalogan, she said.

 

"Rescuers report hearing voices from the rubble," she said.

Focused on floods, landslides
 

Seniang, which was forecast to bring up to 15 millimeters (0.6 inches) of rain per hour, barrelled through fishing and tourist areas in the region on Tuesday.

 

Thousands were evacuated ahead of the storm's arrival, with most expected to be sent home later Tuesday as floodwaters start to recede, officials said.

 

The storm's 65-kilometer (40-mile) per hour wind gusts were weak compared to the last storm to traverse the central region earlier this month, Ruby (Hagupit), which had winds of up to 210 kilometers per hour.

 

"We are focused on floods and landslides because, while the storm's winds are weak, it will bring heavy rain," Pama said in another radio interview.

 

On Monday at least three people were killed after Seniang, known internationally as Jangmi, slammed into southeastern provinces, triggering floods and landslides.

Thousands evacuated
 

Up to 14,000 people were evacuated in Surigao del Sur on Mindanao, where Seniang first hit. They will be sent home on Tuesday as floodwaters recede, Governor Johnny Pimentel told AFP.

 

Ten flights to and from the affected areas on Tuesday were cancelled.

 

Seniang will be out of the central region after midnight Wednesday before brushing the southern tip of Palawan island on its way out of the country on Thursday, according to the state weather bureau.

 

The Philippines is battered by about 20 storms every year, many of them deadly.

 

Last year Super Typhoon Yolanda, the strongest ever to hit the country, left 7,350 people dead or missing in central regions as it stirred up tsunami-like waves, wiping out entire towns. —with a report from Agence France Presse/NB/BM, GMA News