CAGAYAN DE ORO: A tropical storm set off flooding and a landslide in the southern Philippines, leaving at least four people dead, displacing more than 6,000 and trapping residents in houses in two flooded villages, officials said Friday.
Tropical Storm Penha slammed ashore onto the southeastern province of Surigao del Sur from the Pacific late Thursday. It was last tracked Friday around noon off central Bohol province with sustained winds of up to 55 kilometers (34 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 70 kph (43mph), according to forecasters.
A couple and two children died Thursday night when their shanty was hit by a landslide in a quarry area that was set off by torrential rains in a village in southern Cagayan de Oro city, Office of Civil Defense regional director Antonio Sugarol said.
In southern Iligan city, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) southwest of Cagayan de Oro, a resident called the DZMM radio network Friday and pleaded to be rescued from the second floor of her house as floodwater rose and trapped her and three other family members.
"Rescuers are on the way," Sugarol told the frantic resident over the radio, saying other families were being rescued in the villages of Mahayahay and Tubod in Iligan city.
More than 6,000 villagers were displaced due to the storm, including 5,800 who moved to evacuation centers in southern and central provinces. Classes were suspended in many areas, the Office of Civil Defense said.
Nearly 5,000 passengers and cargo workers were stranded in 94 seaports after interisland passenger ferries and cargo ships were temporarily prohibited from venturing into rough seas, the Philippine Coast Guard said.
The storm, which has a 660-kilometer- (410-mile-) wide rain and wind band, hit ahead of summer when the least number of storms lash the Philippine archipelago, government forecaster Robert Badrina said.
Penha was forecast to weaken into a tropical depression later Friday as it blows northwestward across central island provinces toward the western Palawan province, the country's weather agency said.
The Philippines is battered by about 20 typhoons and storms each year. The country also is often hit by earthquakes and has more than a dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the world's most disaster-prone countries.