Floodwaters described as unprecedented rushed through Cebu province's towns and cities this week, sweeping away cars, riverside shanties and even massive shipping containers.
The national civil defence office confirmed on Thursday 114 reported deaths, though that tally did not include an additional 28 recorded by Cebu provincial authorities.
In Liloan, a town near Cebu City where 35 bodies have been recovered from flooded areas, AFP reporters saw cars still piled atop each other by floodwaters and roofs torn off buildings as residents attempted to dig out of the mud.
Christine Aton's sister Michelle, who has a disability, was among Liloan's victims, trapped in her bedroom as the floodwaters rose inside their house.
"We tried to pry open (her bedroom door) with a kitchen knife and a crowbar but it wouldn't budge.... Then the refrigerator started to float," Aton, 29, said.
"I opened a window and my father and I swam out. We were crying because we wanted to save my older sister.
"But my father told me we couldn't do anything for her, that all three of us might end up dead."
On neighbouring Negros Island, where at least 30 people were killed, Kalmaegi's driving rain loosened volcanic mudflow that buried homes in Canlaon City, police Lieutenant Stephen Polinar told AFP on Wednesday.
"Eruptions of Kanlaon volcano since last year deposited volcanic material on its upper sections. When the rain fell, those deposits rumbled down onto the villages," he told AFP.
The national death tally included six crew members of a military helicopter that crashed while on a typhoon relief mission.
AzVision.az
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