Floods and landslides killed at least 32 people, while 10 remained missing and hundreds of thousands were left homeless in the eastern and southern Philippines, the government’s disaster agency said Saturday.
Floods fed by heavy rains inundated entire towns and displaced more than 307,000 people in eight provinces, destroying roads and bridges, and triggering landslides, the National Disaster Coordinating Council reported.
Infrastructure and agricultural damage totaled more than 1billion pesos (US$24.4 million; euro16.43 million), mostly on Leyte and Samar islands, about 570 kilometers (350 miles) southeast of the capital, Manila, the agency said.
The unusually wet weather Feb. 12-17 was caused by a low-pressure area that affected the central Visay, as islands and the main southern island of Mindanao, the weather bureau said.