24 Dead In Philippines As Tropical Storm Megi Causes Landslides, Flooding

At least 24 people have been killed in landslides and flooding across central and southern Philippines, authorities said Monday, after tropical storm Megi dumped heavy rain and disrupted travel ahead of the Easter holidays.

More than 13,000 people fled to emergency shelters as the storm pounded the region on Sunday, the national disaster agency said, flooding houses, inundating fields, cutting off roads and knocking out power.

The central province of Leyte was among the hardest hit, with landslides leaving 21 people dead in four villages, Baybay City disaster officer Rhyse Austero told news agency AFP.

Leyte's death count adds to another three people killed on the main southern island of Mindanao, the national disaster agency said.

Photos posted on Facebook and verified by AFP show several houses buried in mud up to the rooftops in Bunga, one of the affected villages in Leyte.

"Yesterday the rain was so hard, it was non-stop for more than 24 hours," resident Hannah Cala Vitangcol told AFP.

The 26-year-old teacher fled with her family to a hotel Monday after waking to find nearby homes had been covered in an avalanche of mud.

"I was crying because I know the people buried there and I was also scared because there were mountains behind our house," she said.

Philippine Coast Guard and police personnel rescued people from their homes in the flooded town of Abuyog, carrying residents onto orange stretchers laid on floating boats.

Tropical storm Megi -- known in the Philippines by its local name Agaton -- is the first major storm to hit the disaster-prone country this year.

Whipping up seas, it forced dozens of ports to suspend operations and stranded nearly 6,000 people at the start of one of the busiest travel periods of the