MATNOG: Landslides triggered by Tropical Storm Kai-Tak have killed 26 people and 23 more are missing in the eastern Philippines, authorities said on Sunday.

The deaths were reported in the small island province of Biliran, a day after the storm pounded the east of the archipelago nation.

Kai-Tak tore across the major islands of Samar and Leyte on Saturday, toppling power lines in 39 towns or cities and damaging roads and bridges, the national disaster agency said. Some 87,700 people were forced from their homes in the region. But the previous death toll had stood at just three.

Sofronio Dacillo, provincial disaster risk reduction and management officer, said the deaths occurred in four towns in Biliran at the weekend.

“Rocks as big as cars fell on concrete houses after three days of continuous, heavy rain,” chief inspector Lilibeth Morillo, Biliran police information officer, said as she described a landslide in the mountainous district of Lucsoon.

“There were six families living there but they did not evacuate,” she said, adding seven bodies were recovered in the area.

Gerardo Espina, governor of the island province just east of Leyte, gave the same overall death toll of 26 in an interview on ABS-CBN television. He said 23 people were missing.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2017