At least 22 people died from a storm that swept through the central Philippine islands at the weekend, authorities said Sunday, with rescue operations under way in flood-inundated communities. The death toll rose from four a day after the storm brought heavy rain to the Bicol and Eastern Visayas regions, causing massive flooding and landslides, the government’s office of civil defense said. In some areas the floods have reached the roofs of homes,” Claudio Yucot, head of the Bicol region’s office of civil defense, told AFP. At least 16 people died in Bicol while six others were killed in Eastern Visayas, civil defense officials said. An average of 20 typhoons and storms lash the Philippines each year, killing hundreds of people and leaving millions in near-perpetual poverty.

Source: Egypt Independent December 30, 2018 07:41 UTC