Philippines: People mistook the storm as a tsunami, misunderstanding took many lives

Manila. Residents of Kusiong village in the Philippines mistook Sunday’s storm as a tsunami, due to which they ran towards the mountain and were buried alive there. An official gave this information on Sunday. He said the villagers got this misunderstanding because Kuseong had earlier suffered a devastating tsunami. At least 18 bodies have so far been rescued from a swath of mud in the village of Kusiong in the southern province of Magvindanao, one of the worst-hit by tropical storm ‘Nalge’, which devastated the Philippines’ northwest coast early Sunday. have removed.

Najib Sinarimbo, the interior minister of the autonomous region of five Muslim provinces ruled by former guerrilla separatists, said officials feared 80 to 100 people were drowned or buried in floodwaters in Kuseong village between Thursday night and early Friday. During ‘Nalge’ heavy rains lashed the Philippines, due to which at least 50 people died. People of Kuseong village are also included in those who lost their lives. At the same time, this storm left a lot of destruction in the Philippines, one of the most vulnerable countries in terms of disaster.

The disaster is even more tragic for Kuseong village, a densely populated village of the ‘Tedure’ ethnic minority, as more than 2,000 of its villagers have been preparing for disaster management every year for decades to avert a tsunami. This village has also been a witness to the deadly devastation due to tsunami. Sinarimbo said that the villagers, however, could not sense the danger that came from Mount Mindar.

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He told the Associated Press, quoting residents of Kuseong, that when people heard the sound of the warning bell, they started running and gathered in a high-rise cathedral. But it was not the tsunami that would have drowned them. Rather it was a huge pool of water and mud, which had descended from the mountain. Sinarimbo said that due to this one misunderstanding, dozens of villagers lost their lives.

The village of Kuseong lies between the Gulf of Moro and the Mindar Mountains. The tsunami that followed a magnitude 8.1 earthquake in and around Morro Bay in August 1976 caused massive destruction, killing thousands.

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Tags: Heavy Storms, Philippines, World news