Tropical Storm Washi plaguing the southern Philippines triggering floods killed at least 440 dead while 200 people were missing, said Saturday the Philippine Red Cross.
Some 20,000 soldiers were mobilized in a major rescue operation and assistance in the north coast of the island of Mindanao, where the ports of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan were badly affected.
In the city of Cagayan de Oro 215 people were killed and died Iligan City 144, said the secretary general of the Red Cross Gwen Pang told AFP.
The mayor of Iligan, which has about 100,000 inhabitants, Lawrence Cruz said the storm caused "the worst flood in the history of our city", told GMA television. "It happened very fast, when people slept."
The television broadcast dramatic images of a family escaping through a window of their home invaded by water and orange vests helpers with helping survivors to take cover.
The storm, accompanied by wind gusts up to 75 km / h, also struck the island of Negros where 35 people drowned, told the AFP civil protection services.
President Benigno Aquino expressed concern about the tragedy and ordered government agencies to establish a mapping of areas vulnerable to flooding.
"Those areas are at risk each year ... the first step is to relocate" to the inhabitants of those regions, said in a meeting with Civil defense officials.
"Despite the alert (released days before the arrival of the storm) was not undertaken preventive evacuations," said Benito Ramos in Manila, head of the national body for the prevention of disasters.
He added that Mindanao is rarely affected by the storms, but storms affecting 20 per year to the Philippines, particularly the island of Luzon, the largest and most populated of the archipelago in Southeast Asia.
"We fear major damage, especially in the agricultural sector," said Ramos.
Pat Noel, head of the Iligan Tourism office, told AFP that the water started rising shortly after midnight (1600 GMT Friday) when the people slept.
"Many of them told me they could take refuge on rooftops," he added.
Two of the three rivers that flow into the port of Iligan out of its banks, he said.
Another area of Mindanao affected include the province of Bukidnon, where 47 people were killed, said the Red Cross.
A Red Cross official said 162 people remain missing in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, while on the island of Negros are 19 missing, local officials said.
More than 4,000 people were evacuated from flooded areas to places made available, sources of the national body for the prevention of disasters.
Washi storm should arrive before dawn on Sunday west of Palawan Island, the weather service said.
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Storm in the Philippines killed at least 440 dead and 200 missing »
Storm in the Philippines killed at least 440 dead and 200 missing