The storm approached the western island of Palawan, a popular tourist draw, late Saturday and swept into the South China Sea before dawn, the state weather service said.
MANILA: Around 200 people have been killed in the southern Philippines after a tropical storm battered the archipelago nation’s second-largest island, triggering heavy flooding and landslides that have ravaged towns and displaced tens of thousands.
Police said 144 people remained missing while more than 40,000 had fled to evacuation camps as Tembin roared out into the South China Sea early Sunday.
Tropical Storm Tembin lashed Mindanao island, home to 20 million people, on Friday with gusts of 125 kilometres an hour and torrential rain, wiping out at least one mountain village and prompting a massive rescue operation over the weekend.
Tropical storms regularly strike the Philippines: an average of 20 major storms hit the nation annually, many of them deadly. Mindanao, however, home to some 20 million people, is rarely affected.
Thousands of villagers moved to emergency shelters and thousands more were stranded in airports and seaports after the coast guard prohibited ferries from venturing out in the rough seas and several flights were canceled.
“The floodwaters from the mountain came down so fast and swept away people and houses,” Edding said. “It’s really sad because Christmas is just a few days away, but these things happen beyond our control.”
