Officials said on Wednesday that the death toll from landslides and devastating floods in central Philippines triggered by a tropical depression has gone up to eighty-five, and twenty people missing as rescuers slowly reached cut-off communities.
Ricardo Jalad, executive director of the national disaster agency said the casualties, including young children, were mostly killed when their homes collapsed in landslides after days of heavy rain in several provinces in the central Philippines.
The tropical depression, which weakened into a low pressure system before leaving the Philippines on Sunday, brought heavy rain that triggered landslides and flooding in the Bicol and eastern Visayas regions.
Bicol, with a population of 5.8 million, was the hardest hit, with 68 killed in intense rains and landslides. Damage to agriculture in Bicol, which produces rice and corn, was estimated at 342 million pesos ($6.5 million).
