126 killed in storm in Philippines

SANAA, Jan. 6 (YPA) – At least 126 people were killed in the storm that swept the central Philippines at the end of December, mostly in landslides.

The previous toll was 68 people killed by the storm that hit the eastern and archipelago islands on December 29, causing flooding.

More than 100 people have died in the mountainous Bicol region of southeastern Manila, officials at the Department of Natural Disaster Management said.

A spokesman for the Agency for Natural Disaster Management Edgar Posadas told (AFP) that in just two days, the equivalent of more than a month of rain falls on the Bicol region because of the Osman storm.

“Searches are continuing, but mudslides and soil instability are a challenge,” he said, adding that 26 people were missing.

The storm displaced more than 152,000 people, while at least 75 were injured.

Many people did not take the necessary precautions in the archipelago of extreme climatic events as the authorities did not classify the storm as a hurricane, and many did not seem to hesitate to leave their homes during the Christmas and New Year.

The Philippines strikes an annual average of 20 hurricanes and storms, which kill hundreds of people and cause extreme poverty that affects millions almost permanently.

The most powerful of these storms was Hurricane Hayyan, which killed more than 7,360 people dead and missing across the Philippines in 2013.