Most of the dead and missing were poor people forced to live in identified “danger zones” despite government warnings of the risks they face during storms. In Calamba City south of Manila a flash flood washed away a riverside shanty, leaving six inhabitants including a two-year-old missing. There was a flash flood and it washed out their two storey-house,” said Noriel Habana, head of the city’s disaster management office. It just so happened it was a flash flood and they had no time to react,” he told AFP. In one of the worst recent incidents, 7,350 people were left dead or missing after super-typhoon Haiyan struck the central Philippines in November 2013.

Source: New Strait Times September 12, 2017 09:56 UTC