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  • Dec 5th, 2012
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A typhoon slammed into the southern Philippines Tuesday, setting off a mudslide that killed 44 people, tearing up trees, causing floods and forcing thousands to flee their homes to emergency shelters. Typhoon Bopha, the strongest storm to hit the country this year, killed at least 52 people in total after making landfall on the east coast of Mindanao island at dawn, packing winds of 210 kilometres (130 miles) an hour.

A mudslide in a mountainous area near an army patrol base in New Bataan town killed 43 civilians and a soldier, and injured more than two dozen others, local military spokesman Lyndon Paniza told reporters by telephone. An ABS-CBN television reporter said she counted the bodies laid out in a government building that was converted into a temporary mortuary.

An army truck laden with soldiers and civilians was swept away in a flash flood that hit the town, a local official reported earlier. The typhoon brought driving rain and strong winds to Mindanao, toppling trees and power lines, causing localised flooding and forcing more than 56,000 to seek refuge in emergency shelters, the civil defence office said.

Winds blew roofs off buildings and residents of coastal and low-lying communities moved into shelters as floods hit, residents and AFP reporters said. Television footage showed logs being swept down a river, utility workers cutting up fallen trees that were blocking highways, and people lying on mats and cardboard sheets on the concrete floors of gyms turned into shelters. People living in the path of the storm did what they could to protect their homes and possessions.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012


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