- Scores of people are still missing and feared dead in Phillipines.
- In central province of Leyte, devastating landslides smashed farming and fishing communities.
- The hardest hit was Kantagnos where 32 people died and 103 have not been found.
PHILIPPINES, ABUYOG: Official estimates showed that the death toll from landslides and flooding caused by tropical storm Megi in the Philippines had risen to 117 on Thursday, as more remains were discovered in mud-caked villages.
After the largest storm to hit the archipelago nation this year pounded heavy rain over many days, driving tens of thousands into evacuation centres, scores of people are still missing and presumed dead.
Devastating landslides wreaked havoc on farming and fishing towns in the central province of Leyte, destroying homes and altering the landscape.
Storms often wreak havoc on the disaster-prone region, including a direct hit from Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, and scientists warn that they are becoming more powerful as the world warms due to climate change.
Hundreds of dead have been recovered from the coastal community of Pilar, which was demolished by a landslide on Tuesday, by emergency services from the Abuyog municipality.
According to Abuyog Mayor Lemuel Traya, at least 28 people have been killed and around 150 have gone missing, with little possibility of finding anyone alive.
In Pilar, where the ground was unstable, bad weather and thick muck hindered recovery efforts. After several victims were dragged kilometres away by ocean currents, searchers were also scanning the coastline.
"This isn't going to finish anytime soon; it might last days," Traya cautioned.
According to villagers, many of those who killed were trying to flee flash floods by hiking up a mountain.
The landslide's roar was described by Pilar councillor Anacleta Canuto, 44, as "sounding like a helicopter."
Canuto, her husband, and their two children all survived, but at least nine family members did not.
Fisherman from Pilar As the avalanche approached, Santiago Dahonog, 38, claimed he dashed into the sea with two siblings and a nephew.
He told AFP, "We got out of the house, ran to the sea, and started swimming." "I was the only one who made it."
In Baybay, scores are missing.
Local authorities reported that 86 people were killed and many were injured in vegetable, rice, and coconut-growing areas around Baybay City over the weekend. At least 117 people remain unaccounted for.
Kantagnos was the heaviest impacted, with 32 persons killed and 103 still missing.
When a flood of sodden mud surged down a slope and struck onto the riverside settlement of Bunga, 17 people were killed. Only a few rooftops can be seen through the mud, which has begun to smell like decaying flesh.
According to the latest information from the national disaster office, three individuals drowned on Mindanao's largest southern island.
Three further deaths in the centre province of Negros Oriental were removed from the count after it was discovered that they were unrelated to the storm.
Megi struck at the start of Holy Week, one of the most important religious holidays in the predominantly Catholic country, when tens of thousands of people go to see relatives.
It came four months after a major typhoon wreaked havoc across the country, killing over 400 people and displacing hundreds of thousands.
Every year, the Philippines, which is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, is pounded by an average of 20 storms.
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