MANILA: More than 1,000 people remain missing in the Philippines after devastating floods that have already left more than 1,000 others confirmed dead, the government said Friday.
The latest toll stood at 1,079 missing and 1,080 dead.
The big jump in the missing came as rural families reported large numbers of relatives who had gone to work in hard-hit southern cities and remained unaccounted for, civil defence official Ana Caneda told.
"Relatives are trickling in from other provinces to look for their relatives. They are asking for their relatives who disappeared," she added.
Caneda said entire families had been wiped out in the hard-hit southern ports of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, and because they had no relatives left in the city, there was no-one to report their disappearance to the authorities.
Nearly a week after the flash floods wrought by tropical storm Washi, relatives from nearby provinces had descended on the disaster zones and raised the alarm after finding their family's homes gone, she said.
Entire neighbourhoods in Cagayan de Oro, a city of half a million people, and nearby Iligan, a port of 100,000 people, were swept away as major rivers overflowed their banks and swept entire communities out to sea early Saturday.
The latest toll stood at 1,079 missing and 1,080 dead.
The big jump in the missing came as rural families reported large numbers of relatives who had gone to work in hard-hit southern cities and remained unaccounted for, civil defence official Ana Caneda told.
"Relatives are trickling in from other provinces to look for their relatives. They are asking for their relatives who disappeared," she added.
Caneda said entire families had been wiped out in the hard-hit southern ports of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, and because they had no relatives left in the city, there was no-one to report their disappearance to the authorities.
Nearly a week after the flash floods wrought by tropical storm Washi, relatives from nearby provinces had descended on the disaster zones and raised the alarm after finding their family's homes gone, she said.
Entire neighbourhoods in Cagayan de Oro, a city of half a million people, and nearby Iligan, a port of 100,000 people, were swept away as major rivers overflowed their banks and swept entire communities out to sea early Saturday.