The death toll from floods in the Philippines has risen to 29, with 25 still missing, officials say, with storms expected to dump more rain over the hardest-hit southern and central regions.
The Philippines' national disaster response agency said most of the deaths were from drowning, while among the missing were fishermen whose boats capsized.
Tens of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes as heavy rain submerged rural villages, towns and highways on Christmas Day, dampening festivities on the most important holiday in the mainly Catholic nation.
More than 86,000 people were still in emergency shelters on Thursday.
Weather forecasters say a new low-pressure system may bring moderate to heavy rains within the next 24 hours to the same areas in the eastern, central and southern Philippines that have been affected by the floods.
"Flooding and rain-induced landslides are likely, especially in areas that are highly or very highly susceptible to these hazards," the weather bureau said.
The disaster agency said relief efforts were underway to help people in areas hit hard by the flooding.
Officials on Wednesday were to conduct aerial surveillance over Misamis Occidental to assess the extent of the damage.
Climate change brings more powerful storms
The weather turned bad over the weekend as the disaster-prone nation of 110 million people prepared for a long Christmas holiday.
The Philippines is ranked among the most vulnerable nations to the impacts of climate change, and scientists have warned that storms are becoming more powerful as the world gets warmer.
Images from the southern province of Misamis Occidental showed rescuers carrying an elderly woman on a plastic chair as they waded through a flooded street.
Some residents in the province were seen clinging to floats as coast guard rescuers pulled them across chest-deep floods using a rope.
Eighteen of the 29 deaths were reported in the Northern Mindanao region, while 12 of the 25 missing were from Eastern Visayas in the central Philippines, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said.
More than 3,200 houses were damaged by the floods along with roads and bridges, and some areas were without power or water, the agency reported.
A shear line — the point where warm and cold air meet — triggered rains in parts of the country, the state weather bureau said.
ABC/wires
