Nearly 150 dead, hundreds feared dead after Tropical Storm Megi hits Philippines

Nearly 150 people in the Philippines have died and hundreds more are missing and feared dead in the wake of a tropical storm that landed in the country last weekend, according to reports.

Landslides and flooding triggered by Tropical Storm Megi have resulted in 148 deaths, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, citing official figures.

A total of 101 people were killed and dozens more were injured in vegetable, rice and coconut-growing villages around Baybay, a city in the eastern province of Leyte. Another 42 people died in landslides that hit three villages in Leyte's Abuyog municipality, police said, while another person drowned. More than 100 people are still missing, and more than 100 are in the area.

Three people drowned in the Philippines main southern island of Mindanao, and one more died in the central province of Iloilo, the country's national disaster agency, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council NDRRMC, was cited as saying.

Most of the deaths in Abuyog came from the coastal village of Pilar, with at least 28 bodies transported by boat to a sandy lot near the municipal government building after roads leading to the settlement were cut off by landslides.

Many of those who died in the area had hiked to higher ground to avoid flash floods, villagers said.

There was little hope of finding anyone else alive, said Abuyog Mayor Lemuel Traya.

Bad weather and thick mud complicate retrieval efforts in Pilar, where the ground was unstable.

This will not end soon. Traya warned that it could go on for days.

Megi made its first landfall in the province of Eastern Samar Sunday morning, before making its second landfall in neighboring Samar on Monday afternoon as a tropical depression.

One of the biggest holidays in the Philippines is the Holy Week, which sees thousands travel to visit relatives.

It came four months after Typhoon Rai, known in the country as the super typhoon Odette, left 400 dead and thousands homeless.

The NDRRMC said on Thursday that Megi's agricultural damages had amounted to at least 136 million Philippine pesos $2.6 million.

The Western Visayas and Eastern Visayas regions as well as parts of Mindanao suffered 134,991, 740 Philippine pes' $2,576, 915 worth of damages. The damage to Central Visayas and Northern Mindanao's infrastructure amounted to 1.5 million Philippine pesos $27,700, the NDRRMC claimed.