At least 61 people are dead and 150 are missing from landslides in the central and southern Philippines, according to the Philippines National Disaster Coordinating Council.

Heavy rain, high waves and strong winds are slowing the arrival of rescue crews.

Heavy rain, high waves and strong winds are slowing the arrival of rescue crews, officials said on Sunday.

Gov. Rosette Lerias of Southern Leyte province in the central Philippines said 13 people were confirmed dead in San Francisco town and 83 others missing since late Friday. Eighty houses were buried, and more than 250 people were rescued, she told The Associated Press.

The mudslides were triggered by six days of heavy rains. Dozens of people were injured and the death toll was expected to rise, Lerias said.

In nearby Liloan town, five people were killed in landslides and floods while 17 others were buried in debris and feared dead, Lerias said.

"There are landslides all over the province," she said. "It has been raining for several days and the ground has become so saturated."

Electricity was out in the province, she said.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman held out hope that those missing may have sought shelter elsewhere to escape the landslides.

Allen Olayvar, coordinator of the Office of Civil Defense in Southern Leyte, told AP provincial officials received cell phone text messages early Saturday reporting the casualties.

"Emergency!" one text message said. "There are so many dead from landslide here... Please inform the governor to get help here."

Soldiers were trying to reach San Francisco on foot after landslides blocked roads to the town, low clouds prevented helicopters from taking off in nearby Sogod town and high waves forced rescue boats to turn back, officials said.

In the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, nine people, including two infants, were killed in separate landslides in Surigao city, said Lorene Sia, duty officer at the regional civil defense office. Sia said six others were reported missing and six more injured, including a 5-year-old girl.

She said three people drowned in the flood in Agusan del Sur province and one person was missing.

At least 5,260 people were evacuated from rising floodwaters that damaged more than 220 houses and destroyed 62 in the northeastern Mindanao region close to Southern Leyte, she said.

The rains began Monday in eastern parts of the central Philippines and Mindanao, and continued throughout Saturday.

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