MANILA -- The death toll from Tropical Storm Washi rose to 250 on Saturday, with hundreds of people missing after flash floods ravaged southern parts of The Philippines, Sky News reported.
The worst hit places were Cagayan de Oro, a major port on Mindanao island, where a military spokesman previously said that 117 bodies were recovered, and the nearby southern port of Iligan, where 79 people died.
Fifteen people who were swept out to sea were rescued off Iligan, but another 250 remained unaccounted for in the town, they said, with 125 more missing in Cagayan de Oro.
Three people drowned in Polanco, and five were killed in a landslide in mountains near the town of Monkayo, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said. On the central island of Negros, 18 people were killed, the council's executive director, Benito Ramos, told AFP.
Iligan mayor Lawrence Cruz said rampaging floodwaters from swollen rivers swamped at least 10 villages on the city's outskirts.
"It happened so fast, at a time when people were fast asleep," Cruz told GMA television.
The station showed pictures of a family escaping out of the window of their home as floodwaters rose and rescue workers in orange vests shepherding survivors to safety above chest-deep floodwaters.
A welfare department spokesperson told The Philippine Star that evacuation centers likely would remain full until after Christmas Day.
The army mobilized 20,000 soldiers to help in rescue and evacuation efforts on Mindanao, which bore the brunt of the cyclone, Ramos told AFP.
"The storm was moving slowly, so it dumped a lot of rain over the area. The flooding is extensive," he said.
Iligan tourism officer Pat Noel said waters began rising shortly before midnight Friday as people slept, sweeping houses made of light materials and their inhabitants along the rivers.
"Many of them told me they sought refuge on their rooftops," he said after joining the first wave of rescuers at daybreak. "By the time I arrived, they were sweeping thick mud out of their homes, and the water on the street was down to knee level."
He added that two of three rivers that flow into the port of Iligan overflowed and that a popular radio commentator was among those killed.
Weather forecasters said the eye of the storm passed close to Dipolog city, near Iligan, early Saturday and that Washi now is heading out to the Sulu Sea.
The large western island of Palawan, to the northwest, lies directly in the path of the storm, which had winds of 40mph.
The Philippines is struck by about 20 major storms annually, with most hitting Luzon, the largest and most populous island in the Southeast Asian archipelago.
Two typhoons, Nesat and Nalgae, hit the country within days of each other from late September, leaving more than 100 people dead, while Tropical Storm Banyan killed another eight people in October.
