Nov 14,2020:The death toll from Typhoon Vamco that battered the Philippines this week has climbed to 53, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said on Saturday.
The PNP said 22 people are still missing in the flash floods and landslides triggered by the country’s deadliest cyclone this year, which tore through the main island of Luzon from Wednesday to Thursday.
The toll is likely to rise as rescuers continue to search for the missing.
The main task now is rescuing the victims in the provinces of Cagayan and Isabela in the northern Philippines. Using rubber boats, rescuers scramble to pluck residents stranded on rooftops of submerged houses in Cagayan and Isabela.
Philippine Coast Guard footage showed a big swath of the provinces submerged in brown floodwaters triggered by the spilling water from Magat Dam, a large rock-fill dam on the Magat River in the main island of Luzon.
Cagayan Valley is a region of 1.2 million people comprising five agricultural provinces. Nearly 14,000 people are staying in evacuation centers after the floods affected 343,000, the disaster agency said.
