The Philippines confirmed Monday that at least 98 people were killed, with 63 more missing from floods and landslides caused by a tropical storm.
Sixty-nine people were injured as tropical storm Nalgae battered the Philippines over the weekend, the national disaster agency added.
More than 1.9 million people were affected, including some 975,000 who were displaced. More than 309,000 were staying in evacuation centers, the agency said.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. visited flood-stricken areas in Cavite province Monday, bringing additional relief supplies.
He stressed the need for preemptive evacuation ahead of storms to ensure the safety of residents.
"Our flood control measures were overwhelmed by the floods," he said. "The water overflowed from the dikes and inundated towns."
"That’s why I keep reminding disaster risk reduction agencies that the most important thing when preparing for a storm is that we have a preemptive evacuation," he added. "We need to be ahead of the typhoon so that even if the typhoon hits an area, the residents will not be victimized."
Marcos Jr. earlier lamented the high death toll from the floods and landslides in Maguindanao province, asking authorities why the residents were not evacuated before the calamity.
Fifty-three of the dead were from the southern province of Maguindanao, where floods and landslides buried more than 100 houses. Twenty-two people were still missing in the province.
Nineteen were killed in the Western Visayas region, while 12 died in the provinces of Cavite, Laguna and Batangas, just south of Manila.
Fourteen other deaths were reported in other eastern and southern provinces battered by the storm.
Twenty-nine people were reported missing in the Eastern Visayas region, the disaster agency said.
Nalgae was expected to move off the Philippines late Monday, the weather bureau said. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 85 kph (52.82 mph) and gusts of up to 105 kph.
The Philippine archipelago is hit by an average of 20 tropical cyclones each year.
