Flash floods kill at least 450 in Philippines

Flash floods devastated a southern Philippine region unaccustomed to serious storms, killing at least 450 people as they slept and turning two coastal cities into muddy waterways strewn with overturned vehicles and toppled trees.

With nearly 300 people missing, Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and top military officials were to fly to the worst-hit city of Cagayan de Oro today to help oversee search-and-rescue efforts and deal with thousands of displaced villagers, as the weather began to clear and floodwaters receded. Among the items urgently needed are coffins and body bags, said Benito Ramos, who heads the government's disaster-response agency.

"It's overwhelming. We didn't expect these many dead," Ramos said.

Army officers reported unidentified bodies piled up in morgues in Cagayan de Oro city, where electricity was restored in some areas, although the city of more than 500,000 people remained without tap water.

Most of the victims were asleep Friday night when raging floodwaters cascaded from the mountains after 12 hours of rain from a late-season tropical storm in the southern Mindanao region. The region is unaccustomed to the typhoons that are common elsewhere in the archipelago.

Ayi Hernandez, a former congressman, said he and his family were resting in their home in Cagayan de Oro late Friday when they heard a loud swooshing sound and water quickly rose ankle-deep inside. He decided to evacuate to a neighbour's two-storey house.