MANILA • Landslides triggered by Tropical Storm Kai-Tak have killed 26 people on the central Philippine island of Biliran, the authorities said yesterday, a day after the storm pounded the east of the archipelagic nation..
MANILA • Landslides triggered by Tropical Storm Kai-Tak have killed 26 people on the central Philippine island of Biliran, the authorities said yesterday, a day after the storm pounded the east of the archipelagic nation.
« There is a total of 26 people dead from landslides in four towns of Biliran. We have recovered the bodies, » Biliran provincial disaster risk reduction and management officer Sofronio Dacillo told Agence France-Presse.
Mr Gerardo Espina, governor of the island province east of the much larger island of Leyte, gave the same figure for deaths in an interview on ABS-CBN television.
The storm has since weakened, with gusts of up to 90kmh as it moves slowly through the centre of the country towards the South China Sea. It toppled power lines in 39 towns or cities and damaged roads and bridges, the national disaster agency said.
Kai-Tak left thousands of people heading home for Christmas in the Philippines stranded yesterday.
Disaster officials said 15,500 passengers were stranded because ferry services remained suspended in parts of the central Philippines.
