MANILA, PHILIPPINES—At least 32 people have died and 24 are missing as heavy rains and floods hit parts of the Philippines over Christmas weekend, the National Disaster Response Agency said Thursday.
More than 56,000 people are still in emergency shelters after Christmas celebrations in the eastern, central and southern Philippines were disrupted by bad weather.
Images taken in the southern state of Misamis Occidental showed rescue workers carrying an elderly woman in a plastic chair as she walked through a flooded street. Some residents of the state were seen hanging from floaters as Coast Guard rescuers used ropes to pull them across chest-high floodwaters.
Eighteen of the 32 deaths were reported in the northern Mindanao region, and 22 of the 24 missing were from eastern Visayas and eastern Bicol in the central Philippines, according to National Disaster Risk Reduction Management. Council said.
Most of the deaths were from drowning, and among the missing was a fisherman whose boat capsized, officials said.
More than 4,000 homes were damaged by the floods, along with roads and bridges, and some areas experienced power and water outages, the agency said.
Shearlines (where warm and cold air meet) have caused rain in parts of the country, according to the state weather bureau. I predict it will rain.
