Heavy downpours caused by an approaching tropical storm caused floods and landslides that affected several towns in the southern Philippines. The storm is expected to make landfall over the weekend.
Raging brown, muddy floodwaters reached up to rooftops in the affected areasImage: Philippine Coast Guard/AP Photo/picture alliance
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Flooding and multiple landslides in the southern Philippines have killed at at least 42 people.
Naguib Sinarimbo, interior minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in the southern island of Mindanao, said a further 67,000 residents in Maguindanao province were affected by the overnight floods.
Sinarimbo said that death toll might rise since people were feared buried, and the "number might hit 80, but we're hoping it won't reach that number."
Rescue operations to continue
Rescue operations were temporarily suspended overnight and would resume Sunday morning, Sinarimbo added.
He said some 27 died in the town of Datu Odin Sinsuat, and more were likely trapped under mud and floodwaters in the town.
Residents were caught by surprise by the rapidly rising waters brought on by Tropical Storm Nalgae.
"The amount of rainwater that came down overnight was unusually (heavy) and flowed down mountainsides and swelled rivers,'' Sinarimbo said.
Footage posted on social media shows raging brown, muddy floodwaters trapping some residents on their roofs.
Tropical storm Nalgae expected to bring more heavy rains
Rescuers retrieved 16 bodies from Datu Odin Sinsuat, 10 from Datu Blah Sinsuat and five from Upi town.
Rescue operations were ongoing and officials expected the death toll to rise.
"Most of the victims died from flash floods, and then landslides that buried houses," Nasrullah Imam, head of the provincial disaster risk reduction and manage office said. "Some of the victims were trapped in their homes," he added.
Landslides trapped some of the victims in their homesImage: Jayson Dagalea/AFP
The weather improved slightly on Friday morning but the weather bureau expected tropical storm Nalgae to make landfall on the country's eastern coast on Saturday morning.
About 5,000 people in the path of the storm were evacuated.
About 20 typhoons and storms batter the Philippine archipelago each year.
From Nigeria to Pakistan, floods are devastating communities globally
Catastrophic weather events like flooding are becoming more frequent and intense because of human-caused climate change.
Image: Pedro Rances Mattey/AA/picture alliance
Nigeria faces humanitarian disaster
More than 600 people have died in Nigeria's floods, with hundreds of thousands of people still awaiting emergency aid. With 33 out of 36 states hit, the country faces humanitarian risks from disease and food shortages. Floods are a regular occurrence in Nigeria's coastal regions, but these are the worst in more than a decade. Authorities blame heavy rainfall and Cameroon releasing dam water.
Image: Ayodeji Oluwagbemiga/REUTERS
Drought broken by floods in Chad
After a prolonged drought, the most prolific rains in 30 years have left large parts of the central African nation of Chad navigable only by boat. Thousands of people have fled their homes, with cattle herders unable to feed their animals. United Nations agencies estimate the droughts and floods have left 2.1 million people acutely hungry, with food prices skyrocketing.
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Sri Lanka inundated
At least three people have died in floods in Sri Lanka, with the capital Colombo particularly hard hit. Floods have put parts of the country at high risk of landslides, while more heavy rains are expected in the coming days.
Unprecedented monsoon rains and floods left more than half a million people living in tents across Pakistan and more than 1,700 people dead. Floodwaters are slowly receding, but survivors in regions like Sindh and Balochistan, now face the risk of water-borne diseases. This is due to the destruction of health facilities, standing water, low medicine stocks, and a lack of sanitation facilities.
Image: Sabir Mazhar/AA/picture alliance
Landslides bury towns in Venezuela
Floods triggered landslides and river overflows in Venezuela this month, killing more than 50 people. The government says heavy rainfall has caused the worst weather-related disasters in at least a decade, blaming climate change. More rainfall is forecast across the whole country, including hard-hit Aragua State.
Image: Pedro Rances Mattey/AA/picture alliance
Floods a fact of life in the Philippines
In parts of the Philippines, motorcycle taxis have started modifying their vehicles to cope with repeated flooding incidents. In Hagonoy, outside the capital Manila, rain levels are as high as two meters (6.5 feet) in monsoon season. Earlier this week, a typhoon submerged villages and farmlands across the north of the country.
Image: Eloisa Lopez/REUTERS
Is climate change the culprit?
Catastrophic weather events are becoming more frequent and intense because of human-caused climate change. A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture which can result in heavier rainfall. While it's difficult to say just how much climate change contributed to a single event, the overall trend is clear. And the most vulnerable countries are those least responsible for the problem.
Image: Sanjev Gupta/dpa/picture alliance
What can the world do about it?
To keep within the Paris Agreement temperature targets, countries need to rapidly cut emissions, bringing them to near-zero by mid-century. At-risk countries need to build early warning and flood management systems to reduce the impact of climate disasters, including floods. Paying for systems like this will be a major focus of the upcoming UN climate conference.
