Philippines: Death toll from monsoon rains rises to 13

By Roy Ramos

ZAMBOANGA CITY, the Philippines (AA) – The death toll from monsoon rains that have been pounding the Philippines for more than a week rose to 13 on Wednesday.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said in a report that of the six latest confirmed fatalities, five were construction workers who went missing after flashfloods struck an underground tunnel along a river where they were working in northern Quezon province.

The death of another of their colleagues had been confirmed earlier.

The number of missing has increased to nine across central and northern provinces.

The majority of the casualties were victims of flashfloods, drowning and collapsed walls, mostly in the country’s north -- including the capital region -- where the number of affected families has reached around 55,000.

Six people have been reported injured, while 4,487 families -- or 17,896 individuals -- are currently sheltered in 77 designated evacuation centers.

Classes remained suspended Wednesday in dozens of schools in the archipelago’s north.

According to the Council, floodwaters that had previously inundated Manila and other regions in the north have receded, except for in the town of San Mateo where waters reached a height of seven feet.

The state-run weather bureau PAGASA forecast that the southwest monsoon will continue to bring moderate to occasionally heavy rains over the northwest Ilocos Region and Benguet province.

The Philippines suffers around 20 typhoons and storms each year, many of them deadly.

In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan -- one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded -- struck the country's central islands, leaving more than 8,000 people dead, missing and injured.