Floods kill 5,force thousands to flee in Philippines

MANILA, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Flash floods have killed at least five people in the central Philippines and forced thousands to flee to higher ground after days of heavy rains, a provincial governor said on Tuesday.

"More than 10,000 people have been affected," said Ben Evardone, the governor of Eastern Samar, a poor rural province facing the Pacific Ocean.

He said many families were still trapped in interior villages after rising flood waters caused rivers to swell and burst their banks.

"We cannot get to them because the only means of transportation is by boat."

Evardone said five people had been reported killed, including a child. Another man was injured.

Landslides and floodings are common in the Philippines, which is lashed by about 20 typhoons each year. Information on casualties can be difficult due to poor communications and hard-to-reach disaster sites.

Environmental groups blame illegal logging for making flooding worse, particularly in the central Philippines, where more than 5,000 people died in 1991 in floods triggered by a typhoon.

In February 2006, about a thousand people were buried alive when heavy rains for several days loosened soil from a barren mountain and covered a farming village on a central island. (Reporting by Manny Mogato, editing by Carmel Crimmins and Sanjeev Miglani)