The death toll from a storm that devastated the Philippines shortly after Christmas rose to 126, authorities said on Sunday, adding landslides caused by torrential rain were the top cause.

The storm hit central and eastern Philippine islands on December 29 and caused massive flooding and landslides. More than 100 people died in the mountainous Bicol region southeast of Manila, regional disaster officials said.

While the Bicol region is often hit by deadly typhoons, many people failed to take necessary precautions because the storm was not strong enough to be rated as a typhoon under the government's storm alert system, according to civil defence officials.

Officials also said that many residents were reluctant to leave their homes during the Christmas holidays.

"In two days alone, Usman poured more than a month's worth of rainfall in the Bicol region," said national disaster agency spokesperson Edgar Posadas, using the local name for the storm which had weakened into a low pressure area.

"Our search and retrieval operations are ongoing but the sticky mud and the unstable soil are a challenge."

The death toll was likely to climb further with 26 people still missing, Posadas added.

More than 152 000 people were displaced by the storm and 75 were injured, according to the national disaster agency.

President Rodrigo Duterte visited the storm-hit areas on Friday and urged officials to build evacuation centres instead of using schools as shelters for the displaced.

About 20 typhoons and storms batter the Philippines each year, killing hundreds of people.

The deadliest in recent years was Super Typhoon Haiyan which left more than 7 360 people dead or missing across the central Philippines in 2013.

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- FOLLOW News24 on Twitter</s>At least 126 people have died and 26 are missing in floods, landslides and other incidents caused by storm Usman as it passed through the Philippines at the end of last year, officials said on Sunday.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, the Philippine agency that coordinates information during disasters, estimated the number of people affected at more than 675,000, with 75 injured.</s>At least 126 people have died and 26 are missing in floods, landslides and other incidents caused by storm Usman as it passed through the Philippines at the end of last year, officials said on Sunday.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, the Philippine agency that coordinates information during disasters, estimated the number of people affected at more than 675,000, with 75 injured.

Out of the total number of people affected, 58,000 remain in emergency shelters set up in the central and northern regions of the country which were most-severely affected. More than 9,500 homes were damaged.

The tropical storm made landfall in the central Philippines on Dec. 29.

Local authorities declared a state of calamity in Camarines Sur, a province in Bicol region, southeastern Luzon, and which has a population of almost 2 million.

The Philippines is hit by between 15 and 20 typhoons each year during the rainy season, which usually begins in May or June and ends in November or December.</s>The storm hit central and eastern Philippine islands on December 29 and caused massive flooding and landslides. More than 100 people died in the mountainous Bicol region southeast of Manila, regional disaster officials said.

While the Bicol region is often hit by deadly typhoons, many people failed to take necessary precautions because the storm was not strong enough to be rated as a typhoon under the government's storm alert system, according to civil defence officials.

Officials also said that many residents were reluctant to leave their homes during the Christmas holidays.

"In two days alone, Usman poured more than a month's worth of rainfall in the Bicol region," national disaster agency spokesman Edgar Posadas told AFP, using the local name for the storm which had weakened into a low pressure area.

"Our search and retrieval operations are ongoing but the sticky mud and the unstable soil are a challenge."

The death toll was likely to climb further with 26 people still missing, Posadas added.

More than 152,000 people were displaced by the storm and 75 were injured, according to the national disaster agency.

President Rodrigo Duterte visited the storm-hit areas on Friday and urged officials to build evacuation centres instead of using schools as shelters for the displaced.

About 20 typhoons and storms batter the Philippines each year, killing hundreds of people.

The deadliest in recent years was Super Typhoon Haiyan which left more than 7,360 people dead or missing across the central Philippines in 2013.

Explore further: Typhoon Mangkhut bears down on millions in Philippines</s>The NDRRMC says at least 60 persons are injured, while 26 remain missing

MANILA, Philippines – The number of persons killed due to Tropical Depression Usman rose to 126, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported on Saturday, January 5.

In its latest situation report, the NDRRMC said the casualties came from the regions of Mimaropa, Bicol, and Eastern Visayas.

Of the dead, only 8 have been confirmed – 7 in Sorsogon and one in Oriental Mindoro – while the remaining deaths are still subject for verification.

At least 60 persons were injured, while 26 remained missing, the NDRRMC added.

A total of 140,105 families or 624,236 persons were affected by Usman in the Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, and Eastern Visayas regions. Of this number, 13,135 families or 57,786 persons are staying in 119 evacuation centers.

The NDRRMC said another 22,633 families or 107,540 persons are staying outside evacuation centers, with relatives and friends. (READ: P12.5 million in aid given to victims of Tropical Depression Usman in Bicol)

Usman caused an estimated P2.07 billion ($39.43 million)* worth of damage to infrastructure in the Bicol Region, and P758.65 million ($14.45 million) worth of damage to agriculture in the Bicol and Eastern Visayas regions, the NDRRMC said. (READ: How Tropical Depression Usman affected schools)

A total of 6,005 houses were damaged by Usman. Of this number, 1,081 were totally damaged, while 4,924 were partially damaged.

In a statement on Saturday, the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) said families affected by Usman need financial and in-kind support.

According to the PRC's action team, the items immediately needed in Usman-hit areas are cash assistance, safe water, non-food items, and basic household items. (READ: #ReliefPH: Help victims of Tropical Depression Usman)

PRC chairman and Senator Richard Gordon said there was "miscalculation" on the damage Tropical Depression Usman brought.

"Usman was not as strong, but it brought a lot of rains. It is important that we become a little bit more aggressive and make sure that we respect any kind of tropical depression," Gordon said in a statement.

He said the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies are supporting PRC's response operations. – Rappler.com</s>TACLOBAN, Philippines (CNN) — Survivors root through the splintered wreckage of their homes searching for loved ones who may be buried beneath. Others are scrambling to find food and water in areas littered with corpses.

Three days after Super Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms in recorded history, scythed across the central Philippines, people here are struggling to grasp the enormity of what they have lost and the challenges they face.

The storm, known as Yolanda in the Philippines, has left devastation on a monumental scale in its wake.

Thousands of houses have been obliterated. Many areas are still cut off from transport, communications and power. Some officials say that as many as 10,000 people may have been killed.

“There are too many people dead,” said Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippine Red Cross. “We have bodies in the water, bodies on the bridges, bodies on the side of the road.”

Amid the carnage, hundreds of thousands of survivors are trying to cope with a lack of water, food, shelter and medicine. Aid workers and government officials are battling to get emergency supplies to hard-hit areas cut off by fallen trees and power lines.

In Tacloban, a city of more than 200,000 that suffered a catastrophic blow from the typhoon, dead bodies still lay by the side of the road Monday.

Some had been covered by sheets or tarpaulins. But others remain where they had fallen, a look of horror frozen on their faces.

Aid workers are worried the grim abundance of corpses will create health risks for survivors, who are drinking water from underground wells without knowing if it’s been contaminated.

Magina Fernandez, who was trying to get out of Tacloban at the city’s crippled airport, described the situation there as “worse than hell.”

“Get international help to come here now — not tomorrow, now,” she said, directing some of her anger at Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, who toured some of the hardest-hit areas Sunday.

Tacloban was shattered by Haiyan, whose tremendous force brought a wall of water roaring off the Gulf of Leyte. The storm surge leveled entire neighborhoods of wooden houses and flung large ships ashore like toys.

“I have not spoken to anyone who has not lost someone, a relative close to them,” said Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez, who narrowly escaped death during the storm’s fury. “We are looking for as many as we can.”

But Tacloban is far from the only devastated area. Authorities are trying to establish the level of destruction elsewhere along Haiyan’s path.

“It’s not just Tacloban; it’s all the coastal areas” in that region, said Gordon of the Red Cross.

Fishing communities stretch for miles down the eastern coast of Leyte, the island where Gen. Douglas Macarthur led U.S. troops ashore in 1944 at the start of the long, bloody fight to retake the Philippines from the Japanese during World War II.

The other settlements along the coast are likely to have suffered a similar fate to Tacloban’s.

Across the Gulf of Leyte lies Samar, where Haiyan made its first of six deadly landfalls in the Philippines on Friday. Government and aid officials say they are still trying to reach many affected communities on that island.

A similar challenge exists farther west, on the islands of Cebu and Panay, which also suffered direct hits from the typhoon.

The death toll, as reported by the Philippine Armed Forces Central Command, stood at 942 Monday night. But with so much about the storm’s impact still unknown, a full accounting of its victims will take time.

“We can give you estimates right now, but none of it will be accurate.” Gordon said.

Aquino declared a “state of national calamity,” which allows more latitude in rescue and recovery operations and gives the government power to set the prices of basic goods.

Authorities are funneling aid on military planes to Tacloban’s airport, which resumed limited commercial flights Monday. As aid workers, government officials and journalists came in, hundreds of residents waited in long lines hoping to get out.

Among those arriving Monday were U.S. Marines, sent in to assist in relief efforts.

“We’re working hand in hand with the Philippines, both with their armed forces and the national police, and we will help them in their need,” Brig. Gen. Paul Kennedy said.

The Marines are the “forward edge” of a broader U.S. effort to aid the Philippines, he said.

But with the airport nine miles (15 kilometers) from the city center and many roads still clogged with debris, getting supplies to where they’re most needed is proving difficult.

The problems are the same in other stricken regions.

“The main challenges right now are related to logistics,” said Praveen Agrawal of the U.N.’s World Food Program, who returned to Manila from the affected areas Sunday. “Roads are blocked, airports are destroyed.”

The need for food and water has led to increasingly desperate efforts. People have broken into grocery and department stores in Tacloban.

Local businessman Richard Young said he and others had formed a group to protect their businesses.

“We have our firearms, we will shoot within our property,” he said.

Authorities have sent police and military reinforcements to try to bring the situation under control.

Another dire scene played out in the city’s only functioning hospital over the weekend. Doctors couldn’t admit any more wounded victims because there wasn’t enough room. Some injured lay in the hospital’s cramped hallways seeking treatment.

“We haven’t anything left to help people with,” one doctor said. “We have to get supplies in immediately.”

Complicating the search efforts is the lack of electricity in many parts of the storm’s path.

The northern part of Bogo, in the central Philippines, suffered a blackout Sunday, and authorities said it will take months to restore power.

Meteorologists said it will take further analysis to confirm whether Haiyan — with gusts of more than 250 kph (about 155 mph) — set a record.

After leaving the Philippines, the storm lost power as it moved across the South China Sea over the weekend.

Early Monday, it hit the coast of northern Vietnam, where authorities had evacuated hundreds of thousands of people. It weakened to become a tropical storm as it moved inland.

Five people were reported dead, according to the state-run Vietnam News Agency.

Aid workers said Vietnam was likely to avoid damage on the scale suffered by the Philippines. But officials have warned the heavy rain brought by Haiyan could cause flooding and landslides in northern Vietnam and southern China.

For the devastated areas of the Philippines, the bad weather may not be over. The national weather agency, Pagasa, said Monday a tropical depression was moving toward the southern part of the country.

Far weaker than Haiyan, the weather system is likely to affect mainly the islands of Mindanao and Bohol, which didn’t suffer direct hits by the typhoon. But it could bring wind and heavy rain to Tacloban and the surrounding area, making conditions even more hazardous.

Aid workers said the recovery from Haiyan will take many months.

“This disaster on such a scale will probably have us working for the next year,” said Sandra Bulling, international communications officer for the aid agency CARE. “Fishermen have lost their boats. Crops are devastated. This is really the basic income of many people.”

Paula Hancocks and Ivan Watson reported from Tacloban; Jethro Mullen reported and wrote from Hong Kong. CNN’s Andrew Stevens, Kristie Lu Stout, Aliza Kassim, Kevin Wang, Jessica King, Pedram Javaheri, David Simpson and Yousuf Basil also contributed to this report.
The death toll from a storm that devastated the Philippines shortly after Christmas rises to 126.