CEBU, Philippines — At least 26 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced as rains driven by Typhoon Tino (international name: Kalmaegi) flooded swathes of the central Philippines on Tuesday.
Entire towns on the island of Cebu have been inundated, while cars, trucks and even massive shipping containers could be seen swept along by muddy floodwaters in videos verified by AFP.
In Cebu alone, 21 people were now confirmed dead, civil defence deputy administrator Rafaelito Alejandro told AFP by phone, giving the storm’s current death toll as 26.
“Based on information that we have, most of them died from drowning,” he said.
In the 24 hours before Tino’s landfall, the area around provincial capital Cebu City was deluged with 183 millimetres (seven inches) of rain, well over its 131-millimeter monthly average, state weather specialist Charmagne Varilla told AFP.