Flooding begins to rise on the roof of the house, 4 South Filipinos ask for help via Radio DZMM
JAKARTA - The self-rescue efforts were dramatic in the flood and landslide disasters that hit Southern Philippines due to the Penha tropical storm.
In the south of Iligan City, a resident contacted the DZMM radio network on Friday, February 6 and begged to be rescued from the second floor of his roof because the flood began to creep up to trap him and three other members of his family.
"The rescue team is on the way," said the regional director of the Civil Defense Office, Antonio Sugarol, to the panicked residents via radio on Friday, February 6, quoted by AFP.
The resident then told Sugarol that other families in the area, which is about 55 kilometers southwest of Cagayan de Oro, were also being rescued to Mahayahay and Tubod villages in the center of Iligan City.
Tropical Storm Penha hit land in Surigao del Sur Province in the southeast of the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, February 5 evening.
The storm was last tracked on Friday afternoon off the coast of central Bohol Province with wind speeds of up to 55 kilometers (34 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 70 kph (43 mph), according to weather forecasters.
Sugarol explained that as of Friday, February 6, at least four people were killed and more than 6,000 people were displaced following the tropical storm Penha that hit southern Philippines.
He added that a couple and two children of the victims died on Thursday, February 5 at night, when their house was hit by a landslide when a storm came in a mining area in a village south of Cagayan de Oro City.
The storm also stranded nearly 5,000 passengers and cargo workers in 94 ports after inter-island passenger ferries and cargo vessels were temporarily banned from sailing in choppy seas, the Philippine Coast Guard said.
Government weather forecaster Robert Badrina said the storm, which has a rain band and winds as wide as 660 kilometers (410 miles), hit ahead of summer when the number of storms hitting the Philippine archipelago is the least.