Tropical Storm Kompasu Hits Philippines: 9 People Killed, Nearly 1,600 Evacuated

Illustrasi badai tropis. (Wikimedia Commons / Sascha Wittkowski)

JAKARTA - Nine people died and eleven others were missing on Tuesday due to flooding and landslides caused by heavy rains from tropical storm Kompasu that hit the Philippines, the national disaster agency said Tuesday.

Kompasu, with maximum winds of 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour, had absorbed the remnants of the previous typhoon, then made landfall in the Philippines on Monday evening. Nearly 1,600 people had to be evacuated.

The disaster agency said it was verifying information from its regional unit that reported four people died in a landslide in northern Benguet province and five died in flash floods in Palawan, the island province in the southwest of the country.

Meanwhile, authorities said they were carrying out search and rescue operations for the 11 people who went missing mostly after the landslide.

"President Rodrigo Duterte is monitoring the government's disaster response," his spokesman Harry Roque said on Tuesday, citing Reuters October 12.

Rescue personnel are on the scene, while power and water restoration and road cleaning are ongoing, he added.

Kompasu, the 13th tropical storm to enter the Philippines, is expected to leave its territory on Tuesday, the country's weather agency said.

As an archipelago of more than 7,600 islands, the Philippines is hit by about 20 storms or typhoons every year, bringing heavy rains that trigger deadly landslides.