A two-year-old girl has been killed and three other people have been injured after a landslide destroyed a house in the Barangay Basiao area of Catbalogan City on Samar Island, Philippines. The incident happened late in the evening of Sunday 29 December 2024, following several days of rain in the area. Landslides are a common problem after severe weather events, as excess pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments, allowing them to flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all landslides are caused by heavy rainfall. The three people injured are described as 35-year-old man, a 30-year-old-woman, and a baby girl, who were members of the family living in the house. A neighbouring house was also damaged in the incident.
Residents of nearby homes have been evacuated while the situation is assessed, and local government units are also carrying out assessments, and where necessary further evacuations, in other areas which may be at risk of landslips. Much of the island of Samar is currently suffering froom flooding, associated with the Northern Monsoon.
Monsoons are tropical sea breezes triggered by heating of the land during the warmer part of the year (summer). Both the land and sea are warmed by the Sun, but the land has a lower ability to absorb heat, radiating it back so that the air above landmasses becomes significantly warmer than that over the sea, causing the air above the land to rise and drawing in water from over the sea; since this has also been warmed it carries a high evaporated water content, and brings with it heavy rainfall. In the tropical dry season the situation is reversed, as the air over the land cools more rapidly with the seasons, leading to warmer air over the sea, and thus breezes moving from the shore to the sea (where air is rising more rapidly) and a drying of the climate.
Southeast Asia has two distinct Monsoon Seasons, with a Northeast Monsoon driven by winds from the South China Sea during the Southern Hemisphere Summer and a Southwest Monsoon driven by winds from the southern Indian Ocean in the Northern Hemisphere Summer. Such a double Monsoon Season is common close to the equator, where the Sun is highest overhead around the equinoxes and lowest on the horizons around the solstices, making the solstices the coolest part of the year and the equinoxes the hottest.
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