Tropical storm Nock-ten pummeled Luzon in the Philippines, killing more than two dozen people so far, officials said Wednesday. Gulf News reported the death toll from the storm, dubbed Juaning locally, that made landfall on the island Tuesday was at least 29, while The Manila Times put the count at 27.
The Times reported at least nine people were missing.
Most of the fatalities occurred in Luzon's Bicol Region and Quezon province. The deaths were attributed to drownings, landslides, fallen trees, electrocution and heart attacks.
Gulf News said 15 crew members of MV Henrik, which was swept away by rough waters off Balisan Island in Quezon, were found early Tuesday. Rescuers had saved 30 people, most of them fishermen, from the sea in the past three days, the news service said.
Luzon was immobilized by floods, power outages, impassable roads and broken bridges, Gulf News said.
The storm was already affecting several hundred thousand people and up to 12 million people were preparing for floods due to the swelling of rivers in suburban Marikina and Antipolo.
"The storm will remain in northern Luzon for a day before it goes away to the South China Sea," the weather bureau said.
The Times said the Department of Education suspended elementary and high school classes in Baguio City in Mountain and Benguet provinces Wednesday, and the Senate in Manila closed for the day.
"Those two provinces are under water," Benito Ramos, chief of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said.
The province of Albay was placed under a state of emergency, the newspaper said.
