Brave villagers rescued their neighbour who was stranded in floods as record rainfall battered a town in the Philippines today.

Dramatic footage shows the locals helping a woman hanging onto debris as she floated on the deluge that hit Catarman town in Northern Samar province on November 21. They used a log as a makeshift life preserver while paddling through the swamp to reach safety.

Philippine weather agency PAGASA said Northern Samar saw 619 millimetres of rain in a 24-hour period from Monday to Tuesday, 8 am. This topped the previous highest daily rainfall of 605.5 millimetres recorded in Catarman town last December 2019.

A red weather alert for torrential rains was raised today over the provinces of Sorsogon, Northern Samar, Biliran, and parts of Samar and Eastern Samar.

PAGASA said the extreme weather was being caused by the shear line, an area where cold air meets warm air. The agency said the phenomenon occurs during the country's northeast monsoon season, when cool northeast winds meet warmer air blowing from the Pacific. The temperature gradient allows large storm clouds to form.