Half a million people affected by one of the year’s deadliest weather-related disasters Damage to infrastructure and agriculture estimated at $24.6 million MANILA: The death toll from flooding caused by incessant rains in the Philippines has climbed to 44, authorities said on Friday, as rescuers raced to find dozens of people who were still reported missing. Nearly 510,000 people have been affected by what has been one of the deadliest weather-related events in the country this year, as flash floods submerged villages, towns and highways in the Visayas and Mindanao regions as Filipinos celebrated Christmas. “As of this morning, unfortunately, we now have 44 reported (dead),” Diego Agustin Mariano, information officer at the Office of Civil Defense, told Arab News. Most deaths, caused by drowning from flash floods, were reported in Northern Mindanao. The floods have subsided, but intermittent heavy rains continued on Friday, and rescuers in villages hit by landslides had to crawl through mud and rubble to look for survivors. At least 28 people were still missing. “I can’t say what the chances are of them still being alive, but search and rescue operations are ongoing,” Mariano said. “We are still looking on the bright side. We are still hoping for the best, that those missing are still alive and will be found and rescued.” The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council estimated damage to infrastructure and agriculture at 1.37 billion pesos ($24.6 million). Nearly 57,000 people were still sheltering at evacuation centers in the worst-affected central southern provinces of Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan, Bukidnon, Camiguin, Misamis Occidental, Misamis Oriental, Lanao del Norte, and in Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Unlike other deadly weather-related incidents in the country, the floods were not triggered by tropical storms that regularly hit the Philippines. The Christmas rains were caused by a shear line, an area where warm and cold winds meet, forming in the country’s south. Multiple reports rank the Philippines as one of the countries most affected by and vulnerable to climate change. The archipelago nation has been experiencing an increase in highly destructive weather events for the past decade, as the world gets warmer.