The death toll from Christmas Day rains in the southern Philippines has risen to 13, authorities said on Tuesday, with 23 people still missing as floods began to recede.
Most of the deaths were caused by drowning in flash floods after two days of heavy rain disrupted Christmas celebrations and forced more than 45,000 people to take shelter in evacuation centers, the disaster agency said.
Images on social media showed coastguards, police and firefighters wading through waist-deep floodwaters and carrying residents around areas hit by landslides. Some roads were flooded by swollen rivers in the area.
Rescue operations continued and damage to agriculture was being assessed, Carmelito Heray, head of the disaster agency in Clarin, Misamis Occidental province, told radio station DZBB.
There was no tropical storm during the predominantly Catholic nation’s most important holiday. But the shear line, an area where warm and cold winds meet, caused rain clouds to form in the southern Philippines.
“There is a lot of damage to the livestock here because their adult pigs, chickens, goats and cows are now gone,” Clarin city mayor Emeterio Roa said on radio.
