One dead, thousands flee as Kai-Tak storm pounds Philippines

A boy drowned and tens of thousands were driven from their homes by floods as Tropical Storm Kai-Tak pounded the eastern Philippines on Saturday, cutting off power and triggering landslides, officials said.

Kai-Tak, packing gusts of up to 110 kilometers (62 miles) an hour, hit the country's third-largest island Samar in the afternoon and was forecast to slice across the rest of the central Philippines over the weekend, the state weather service said.

Military trucks drove



through rising floodwaters on Samar and nearby Leyte island to rescue trapped residents, with more than 38,000 people now in evacuation centres, local officials said. 

A two-year-old boy drowned in the Leyte town of Mahaplag, the civil defence office in the region said.

A spokeswoman for the national government's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council told AFP it is trying to confirm reports of two other deaths from landslides and floods.