Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: The death toll from heavy rains in the southern Philippines has surged to 13, with search and rescue efforts still underway to find the missing as floods started receding, reported Reuters while citing authorities.
Most of the casualties occurred by drowning from flash floods after two days of heavy rains disrupted Christmas celebrations and forced more than 45,000 people to take shelter in evacuation centres. Earlier, the coast guard force said that strong winds and big waves sank a fishing boat off the coast of the central island of Leyte.
Images circulating on social media showed coast guard, police, and rescue personnel helping residents in flood-hit areas as well as roads flooded with overflowing rivers.
Christmas holidays ruined by torrential rains
The central and southern Philippines was hit by bad weather as the disaster-prone nation of 110 million people started a Christmas holiday. Most people travel to their hometowns for family reunions during this period of the year.
The Philippines ranks among the most vulnerable nations to the impacts of climate change. The country has been suffering from highly destructive typhoons almost every year for the past 10 years, with annual losses from these storms estimated at 1.2 percent of GDP.
