Cyclone Kompasu Strikes Philippines, Kills 9

MANILA—Nine people have been killed in the Philippines and 11 were missing on Tuesday due to floods and landslides caused by heavy rain from tropical cyclone Kompasu, the national disaster agency said.

Kompasu, with maximum sustained winds of 62 miles per hour, had absorbed remnants of an earlier cyclone before making landfall in the Philippines on Monday evening. Nearly 1,600 people were evacuated.

In this photo released by the Gonzaga Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, a resident is pulled along a rope as rescuers wait on the other side of a swollen river caused by heavy rains from Tropical Storm Kompasu in Gonzaga town, Cagayan province, northern Philippines, on Oct. 11, 2021. (Gonzaga MDRRMO via AP)

The disaster agency said it was verifying information from its regional units that reported four people killed in landslides in northern Benguet province and five killed in flash floods in Palawan, an island province in the country’s southwest.

Authorities were conducting search and rescue operations for 11 people missing mostly after landslides.

Rescuers carry the body of a victim caught in a landslide. A number of people have been killed and others were reported missing in landslides and flash flood set off by a storm that barreled through the tip of the northern Philippines overnight caused by Tropical Storm Kompasu in Baguio city, northern Philippines, on Oct. 12, 2021. (AP Photo)

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

President Rodrigo Duterte was monitoring the government’s disaster response, his spokesperson, Harry Roque said on Tuesday.

Rescue personnel were at the scene, while power and water restoration and road clearing was ongoing, he added.

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