Most of the deaths from Tropical Storm Maggie – the strongest hit by the archipelago this year – were in the central county of Leite, where a series of landslides devastated communities. Eighty-six of the victims were in Baybay, a mountainous area of the province, where 236 people were also injured, the city government said in a report. Wet ground waves fell on rural settlements in Baybay. Twenty-six people have been killed and about 150 are missing in the coastal village of Pilar, in Abu Dhabi municipality, after a torrent of mud pushed houses into the sea on Tuesday and buried most of the settlement, authorities said. “I must be honest, we are no longer waiting for survivors,” said Abuyog Mayor Lemuel Traya, adding that emergency personnel were now focused on the difficult task of retrieving bodies. About 250 people were at the evacuation centers after being rescued by boat after the roads were cut off by landslides, he said. Several villagers were also in the hospital. A “helicopter” noise alerted 22-year-old Ara Mae Canuto to a landslide running toward her family home in Pilar. He said he tried to overcome it but was dragged into the water and nearly drowned. “Swallow dirt and my ears and nose are full of mud,” Canuto said by telephone from her hospital bed. Her father died and her mother was not found. Maggie, who fell ashore on Sunday with continuous winds of up to 65km / h and gusts of up to 80km / h, has since disappeared. The disaster-prone area is regularly hit by thunderstorms – including a direct hit by Hurricane Haiyan in 2013 – with scientists warning that they are becoming stronger as the world warms due to man-made climate change. The aerial photographs showed a large area of mud that had been swept away by a hill of coconut trees and had engulfed the village of Bunga, where only a few roofs passed through the now transformed landscape. The Philippine Coast Guard is evacuating residents from flooded homes on a makeshift raft in Panitan City, Capiz Province. Photo: Philippine Coast Guard / AFP / Getty Images “We were told to be on alert because of a storm, but we were not told directly that we had to evacuate,” said Bunga farmer Loderica Portarcos, 47, who lost 17 relatives and a friend in the landslide. Portarcos faced the heat and humidity as they advised an excavator operator to dig for three bodies still buried in the soft soil, which had begun to smell of rotten flesh. “Our dead relatives are all in the morgue, but there will be no time to mourn them because the mayor told us they smell bad,” he said. Three people were also killed in the central Negros Oriental province and three on the main southern island of Mindanao, according to the National Disaster Management Agency. Black bags containing 26 Pilar victims were dumped in the sand at Abuyog for relatives to identify on Wednesday. Abuyog Police Chief Captain James Mark Ruiz said more boats were needed but access to the coast was difficult. Photos posted by the Fire Department on Facebook showed buildings being smashed or overturned by landslides and debris in the water. “We use fiberglass boats and there are steel rods exposed to the sea, so it is very difficult,” said Mayor Abuyog Traya, adding that the ground was unstable and “very dangerous”. While Canuto survivor of Pilar considers herself lucky to be alive, she said “many of us have died and many are missing.” Pope Francis expressed his solidarity with the victims, the Vatican said in a statement. “It also offers reassurance for prayers for the dead, the wounded and the displaced as well as those involved in recovery efforts,” he said. “His Holiness willingly invokes all the people of the Philippines the blessings of God.” Whipping the seas, Maggie forced dozens of ports to temporarily suspend operations, trapping thousands of people at the beginning of Holy Week, one of the busiest times of the year in the Philippines. It came four months after Hurricane Rai devastated parts of the country, killing more than 400 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless. The Philippines, one of the most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change, is hit by an average of 20 storms a year.
