75 reported dead as Severe Tropical Storm

'Vinta' floods parts of Mindanao

By CNN Philippines Staff
Updated 00:49 AM PHT Sun, December 24, 2017
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 22) — Seventy-five people are reportedly
dead and thousands have been displaced by Severe Tropical Storm "Vinta"
(International name: Tembin), which has caused heavy flooding in several areas in
Mindanao.The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC)
however said the figure "is still for verification, validation, and confirmation," along with
reports that 58 people are missing.CNN Philippines earlier reported 48 died in
Mindanao, according to local government officials.In Lanao del Norte, the province's
Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council reported 25 casualties, while
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Governor Mujiv Hataman and Lanao del Sur
Assemblyman Zia Alonto Adiong said 18 people were killed in Lanao del Sur.

In the town of Payao in Zamboanga Sibugay, Councilor Lemuel Bulawin said a 4-year-
old died after being trapped in a landslide. However, the rescue teams were able to
save the parents and their other son.Kabasalan town was hit by flashfloods, resulting in
the death of one person due to drowning, said Department of the Interior and Local
Government (DILG) officer Benonie Galambao.In Valencia City in Bukidnon, two were
killed on Friday in a landslide in Barangay Laligan. On Friday, some 429 families were
forcibly evacuated as the water level in the Pulangui River rose rapidly.The victims were
identified as Irene Mirabueno, 2, and Efepania Mirabueno, 65, according to the city
disaster management office. The victims were rushed to the nearest hospital, but were
pronounced dead by 1:45 p.m. on Friday.At the Butuan City Jail in Agusan del Norte,
one prisoner was killed and 13 others were injured on Friday when the jail's roof
collapsed due to the strong winds and rains, according to the Philippine Red Cross.

Evacuations, damage
Vinta, which entered Philippine territory shortly after the deadly cyclone Urduja exited,
dumped rains in Mindanao, forcing the evacuation of thousands of people.The
NDRRMC said over 12,000 families are in 211 evacuation centers in the Davao and
Caraga regions.In other parts of Zamboanga Sibugay, rains from Vinta caused the
Sibugay River to overflow. Floodwaters reached intended evacuation centers.Speaking
to CNN Philippines News Night on Friday, Lanao del Sur Disaster Risk Reduction and
Management Council head Saripada Pacasum Jr. said floods in the province have
subsided a bit as rains from Vinta weakened.He said authorities are working on
removing rocks from the landslides.

"Our main problem is yung mga rocks which are blocking the main highway," he said.
"Right now we're trying to clear it but it's just taking time kasi medyo malalaki [they're
quite big]."Earlier, Adiong had said Vinta caused floods and landslides in Marawi. The
war-torn city is still picking up the pieces after five months of fighting between the ISIS-
inspired Maute group and government forces.Tents in shelter sites in the towns of Baloi
and Pantar in Lanao del Norte were destroyed. The tents serve as housing for
Maranaos displaced by the Marawi war. The evacuees have been moved to nearby
covered courts, officials said on Friday.Meanwhile, the Salug Daku Bridge in Mahayag,
Zamboanga del Sur collapsed due to heavy flooding. Alternate routes are also
impassable due to high water level.In Cagayan de Oro in Misamis Oriental, over 500
families mostly from flood-prone barangays were evacuated as the Cagayan de Oro
River reached its critical level.The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines on
Saturday said it is working to restore power in parts of Zamboanga del Norte, Davao del
Norte, Compostela Valley, and Davao Oriental.Out by Christmas EveIn its 11 p.m.
bulletin Saturday, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services
Administration (PAGASA) said Vinta has made landfall over Balabac, Palawan.It packs
maximum winds of 105 kilometers per hour (kph) and gusts of up to 145 kph. The storm
is moving west 23 kph.PAGASA said Vinta may intensify into a Typhoon before it exits
Philippine territory on Christmas Eve.

The state weather bureau warned of scattered to widespread and moderate to heavy
rains over Palawan and light to moderate, with at times heavy rains over the western
section of Visayas, and Mindanao within the next 24 hours.It warned residents in these
areas of possible flooding and landslides, advising them to oordinate with local disaster
offices and to be on the lookout for updates.Tropical Cyclone Signal No. 2 has been
raised in Southern Palawan, while Signal No. 1 is up over the rest of Palawan.Sea
travel in these areas, including the southern seaboard of Mindoro and the western
seaboard of the Zamboanga Peninsula, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi remain risky.
Philippines: Tropical Storm
Tembin/Vinta - Rapid Assessment
Report (January 2018)

Date(s) of Assessment: 28-31 December 2017

Name and Location of Site(s) Assessed:

 Lanao del Sur, Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao

 Lanao del Norte, Region X

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
On 20 December, the Low Pressure Area in northeast Mindanao, Philippines has
developed into a Tropical Depression and was named by the Philippine state weather
bureau as Vinta (with international name: Tembin). Vinta/Tembin intensified and has
developed into a Tropical Storm category as it moved towards the landmass of Mindanao.
It was reclassified into Severe Tropical Storm before making landfall in Cateel, Davao
Oriental at around 1:45am on 22 December. It traversed Mindanao and crossed provinces
westward and exited the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) at 8am on 24
December.The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC)
reported that a total of 161,628 families or 767,994 persons were affected in 1,131
barangays/villages in eight regions.(1) As of 30 December 2017, the government is still
validating the 163 reported deaths (64 in Region IX, 75 in Region X, and 24 in ARMM)
and another 163 persons missing. Most of the dead and missing were reported in the
hardest-hit provinces of Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, and Zamboanga del Norte. The
provincial provinces of Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur declared the entire province
under the state of calamity. Meanwhile, four municipalities in Zamboanga del Norte; one
municipality in Zamboanga del Sur, one municipality in Zamboanga Sibugay, and three
municipalities in Palawan declared their town under the state of calamity.

TS Tembin has dumped a massive amount of rainfall that triggered widespread flooding,
flashfloods, and mudslide in provinces it crossed including the provinces of Lanao del
Norte, Lanao del Sur, and Zamboanga del Norte. The flashflood and mudslide swept
away houses and belongings including learning essentials; caused heavy damage to
schools, barangay halls, child development centers, and health centers; damaged water
pipelines and water intake boxes; washed out agricultural crops such as corn, coconut,
and rice; and instantly killed livestock such as cows, horses, and goats. Children’s
behavior changed after typhoon – they would cry after hearing heavy rainfall on the roof
or howling winds, or are restless at night.

TS Tembin has triggered major needs on education, child protection, water, sanitation,
and hygiene; food security and livelihood; and disaster preparedness at the school and
community level. It is should be highlighted also that most of the schools affected in Lanao
del Sur and Lanao del Norte are schools hosting internally displaced children due to the
Marawi City Conflict and Displacement. The challenging situation created by the conflict
and displacement has become more challenging now that school facilities and equipment
were damaged by TS Tembin.Providing immediate assistance to the severely-affected
schools and community would be life-saving and would lessen the risk of families to
negative coping mechanism such as pulling out the children from schooling due to lack
or absence of money, trafficking, child labor, recruitment to armed groups, or violence
against children and women.Save the Children can build on our existing humanitarian
response to the Marawi Conflict and Displacement to make sure that children have
access to education, protection, and development. Partnerships built between the
Department of Education and civil society organizations can optimize the work we do for
children.

RECOMMENDATION
From the areas surveyed, Munai and Salvador in Lanao del Norte; and Madalum,
Madamba, and Bacolod Kalawi in Lanao del Sur province are being recommended for
interventions on education, child protection, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH),
non-food items (NFIs), and food security and livelihood.

The recommendation is made on the basis of lack of access to immediate support due to
impassable bridge and roads, scale and extent of damaged to schools and houses,
number of affected families, and long-term needs of the affected schools and community
to build their capacity and mitigate the impact of hazards in the future.
4 Dead, 6 Missing in Floods and Landslides
in Philippines

A tropical depression has dumped heavy rain on the Philippines, flooding metropolitan
Manila and nearby provinces and causing landslides and flash floods that killed at least
four people.

Sept. 12, 2017, at 5:23 a.m.

BY TERESA CEROJANO, Associated Press

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — a tropical depression dumped heavy rain on the

Philippines on Tuesday, flooding metropolitan Manila and nearby provinces and causing
landslides and flash floods that killed at least four people.

Six others were missing, including five residents of Laguna province, where floods
swept away a house next to a swollen river, disaster relief officials said. The other
missing person was reported in nearby Cavite province, where several areas were
submerged.

Financial markets, government offices and schools were closed and at least 21 flights
were canceled or diverted.

The weather bureau said Tropical Depression Maring made landfall in eastern Quezon
province Tuesday morning and was moving northwest with winds of 60 kilometers (37
miles) per hour and gusts of up to 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour. It warned that
continued moderate to heavy rain in Manila and nearby provinces along the storm's
path could trigger more floods and landslides.Disaster response official Elmer Espiritu
said two brothers aged 14 and 17 died when a landslide covered their home at the foot
of a hill before dawn in Taytay town near Manila. Officials ordered mandatory
evacuations in risky areas after some residents refused to leave, he added.In Quezon
province, a 2-month-old girl was killed and seven others were injured when a concrete
wall around a hospital collapsed on three houses in Lucena city after heavy rain soaked
the soil at the wall's base, officials said.Police also reported that a 12-year-old girl
drowned in metropolitan Manila's Pasay city while bathing in a river during the heavy
downpour.

Twenty-two passengers on a bus stranded in floodwaters were rescued in Quezon

province, officials said.

A stronger storm, Talim, was located 865 kilometers (537 miles) east of the Philippines'
northern tip and was moving toward Taiwan and eastern China.

Talim was due to make landfall on Taiwan late Wednesday and officials there were
especially concerned about mudslides in mountainous parts of the island. Taiwan's
government was contacting the heads of mountain villages, arranging free evacuations
to shelters, and monitoring rivers and mudslide-prone areas.

Talim was expected to hit China's southeastern coast either Thursday or Friday, China's
official Xinhua News Agency reported. Coastal Zhejiang province ordered local
governments and emergency services to prepare for the storm and possible flooding,
China National Radio said.
More than 200 killed in Philippines
mudslides and floods as storm hits

A tropical storm in the Philippines has triggered mudslides and floods killing more than
200 people with many others reported missing, police and disaster officials said on
Saturday.

The casualties from storm Tembin, most of which occurred on Friday, were all on the
main southern island of Mindanao.

A search and rescue operation is underway for more than 30 people swept away by
flash floods in the fishing village of Anungan in the south-east of the island, where five
bodies have already been recovered.

“The floodwaters from the mountain came down so fast and swept away people and
houses,” said Bong Edding, mayor of Sibuco in Zamboanga del Norte province. “It’s
really sad because Christmas is just a few days away, but these things happen beyond
our control.”

Edding blamed years of logging in the mountains near Anungan for the tragedy,
adding that he and other officials would move to halt the logging operations.

“We’re are still trying to confirm reports of a farming village buried by a mudslide,” said
Ryan Cabus, an official in Tubod town.

He said power and communication lines to the area had been cut, complicating rescue
efforts.Tembin, known locally as Vinta, strengthened over the Sulu sea and picked up
speed late on Saturday, packing maximum sustained winds of 65 miles (105 kph) and
gusts of up to 90 mph (145 kph). It is forecast to move off toward the South China Sea
on Sunday.Emergency workers, soldiers, police and volunteers were being mobilised to
search for survivors, clear debris, and restore power and communications.Local police
said 135 people were dead and 72 were missing in the northern section of Mindanao,
where floodwaters from a mountain had swept away several riverside houses and
villagers. Another 47 were dead and 72 missing in the Zamboanga peninsula towns of
Sibuco and Salug.Three people were killed in Bukidnon province, while politicians in
Lanao del Sur province said 18 people had drowned in floods there.

The Philippines is battered by about 20 typhoons every year, bringing death and
destruction, usually to the poorest communities of the south-east Asian country.

A ferry sank off north-east Quezon province Thursday after being battered by fierce
winds and waves, leaving at least five people dead. More than 250 passengers and
crewmen were rescued.

Last week, 46 people were killed in the central Philippines when a typhoon hit. Last
Christmas a powerful typhoon hit the densely populated area around Manilaand in 2013
super typhoon Haiyan killed nearly 8,000 people and left 200,000 families homeless.

Elsewhere in the country at least 37 people, including call centre staff from an American
firm, are believed to have perished in a fire that tore through a shopping mall in the
southern city of Davao, local authorities said on Sunday.
Davao City mall fire: 38th victim died after
saving 783
By: Allan Nawal- Correspondent / @inqmindanao
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 07:04 AM December 28, 2017

DAVAO CITY — Melvin Gaa, a security officer at NCCC Mall, had already helped
evacuate some call center workers as fire raged through the four-story building on
Saturday.
“But instead of [staying on the ground], he went [up] again to try to save more people,”
Thea Padua, spokesperson for the shopping mall, told the Inquirer in a Facebook chat
on Wednesday.
Gaa died trying to rescue trapped employees of a 24-hour call center for Connecticut-
based market research company Survey Sampling International (SSI) on the building’s
top floor.
His body was recovered from what remained of the building on Tuesday, raising the
death toll from the 32-hour fire to 38.
The other 37 victims were call center workers at SSI.
Gaa, who had worked at NCCC for 10 years, had helped evacuate 83 other SSI
employees and about 700 workers of the mall and shoppers before he died, Padua
said.
“We offer his family our sympathies and recognize with the deepest gratitude Melvin’s
sacrifice,” Padua said, adding that Gaa was a hero.
Lloyd Angeles, a supervisor at SSI, also returned to the top floor although the fire was
dangerously spreading to help evacuate his coworkers.
Unlike Gaa, however, he lived to tell his experience.
Angeles said in a post on Facebook on Christmas Eve that when the fire broke out, SSI
employees followed the evacuation plan, grouping themselves according to their
designated fire exits.
But as they were fleeing the burning building, someone told him that there were
employees still in the locker area.
“I ran to the locker area and smoke was already black and I yelled ‘lobby’ so many
times I couldn’t count it,” he said.
“After everyone exited the hallway, I started moving toward the lobby and exited the
building,” he added.
People trapped
“When I was told that there [were] missing four (employees), and two of [them were]
confirmed [to be] still inside, I went back up and informed the firefighters that we [had
some] people trapped,” he said.
But it was already too late, he said, as the heat had become unbearable and thick
smoke had overwhelmed all entry points.
“We tried every entry point, to no avail,” he said.
Of the 38 who died in the fire, only two remained unidentified as of Wednesday.
Forensic officers said they needed to be sure which one was Mikko Demafeliz and
which one was Alexandra Moreno.
They said they might resort to DNA tests if they could not find “secondary identifiers”
such as jewelry and still-readable IDs.