Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017 | 9:21 p.m.
More than 30 people were killed and many others were missing after a slow-moving tropical storm spurred floods and landslides in the central Philippines, officials said Sunday.
Thousands of Christmas holiday travelers were stranded, and 89,000 people were forced to flee to emergency shelters because of Tropical Storm Kai-Tak, according to local news reports.
Sofronio Dacillo Jr., a disaster response officer, told The Associated Press that landslides in the island province of Biliran had killed dozens of villagers and left others missing after the storm blew over Saturday.
The storm weakened into a tropical depression but moved southwest and picked up speed Sunday, with sustained winds of 34 mph, according to officials and police.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said it was trying to confirm the deaths reported because of the storm.
The storm, known locally as Urduja, has remained almost stationary over the eastern section of the central Philippines, knocking out power in some areas.
President Rodrigo Duterte said he would visit the region.
The Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone areas in the world, with about 20 typhoons and storms, mostly from the Pacific, lashing the country of over 100 million people each year, according to the AP.
