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Typhoon kills over 1,000 in Philippines
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-12-03 10:31
A powerful typhoon sliced through the Philippines on Friday, forcing more
than 160,000 people to flee their homes to higher ground even as rescuers
struggled to find the missing from an earlier storm that killed more than 420
people.
There was an unconfirmed report more than 1,000 were dead or unaccounted for
from the typhoon that hit the Philippines earlier this week. Civil defence
officials said at least 422 people were confirmed dead and another 177 missing.
The military reported a toll of 479 dead and 560 missing but regional commander
Maj.-Gen. Pedro Cabuay cautioned the figures were based on numbers provided by
local officials that could not be immediately confirmed.
Mudslides and flash-floods caused by the earlier storm have turned entire
provinces facing the Pacific Ocean into a sea of chocolate-brown mud littered
with bodies, uprooted trees, collapsed homes and bridges.
Survivors sifted through piles of mud, which in some towns was ankle deep,
for clothes and belongings. Soldiers, police and medical workers trekked with
relief supplies across flood-ravaged roads and bare mountains to reach towns cut
off by landslides.
In the town Infanta in Quezon province, east of the capital Manila, where at
least 100 died, officials allowed residents to briefly leave evacuation centres
to retrieve belongings from damaged homes but warned them to return because of
the typhoon.
"We are not concerned so much about saving property. We just want to save
lives," said Infanta Mayor Filipina America.
The latest storm, Typhoon Nanmadol, made landfall late Thursday along the
northeastern coast with sustained winds of up to 185 kilometres an hour and
gusts of up to 222 km/h, disrupting maritime rescue operations and partially
grounding the Philippine air force.
Schools and government offices remained closed Friday in Manila and the rest
of the country, the presidential office announced. The coast guard prevented
ferries, small boats and fishermen from leaving ports and the air force said the
bad weather had basically grounded its rescue fleet.
The typhoon drenched Manila and most of the country, causing flooding on some
streets and temporary power outages in the capital.
In coastal Mercedes, 233 kilometres southeast of Manila, about 2,000 people
moved into a school as heavy rains and strong winds lashed the area. Similar
evacuations took place throughout the region, where people took refugee in
sturdy buildings.
The Office of Civil Defence reported as many as 168,000 people have been
evacuated.
Rough seas and debris forced a navy gunboat to turn around after it tried to
bring food and medicine to Real, in Quezon province, the town hardest hit by the
previous storm. A landslide there earlier this week killed at least 150, said
navy spokesman Capt. Geronimo Malabanan.
About 400 troops set out for Real on foot with relief supplies in their
backpacks and in boxes perched on their heads, inching along a route blocked by
up to 20 landslides, said regional military commander Maj.-Gen. Pedro Cabuay.
"They will carry as many supplies as they can," he said.
Television footage showed landslide-hit towns with mud-covered bodies laid
out in common areas, where anguished mothers wept for their children. Fathers
and brothers, meanwhile, clawed through mud in a desperate search for missing
loved ones.
One woman frantically called ABS-CBN television, begging to be rescued from a
rooftop.
"All my relatives are dead. I survived because I was able to go to the roof,"
she said.
"My sister is dead, my husband is dead."
The Philippines is hit by about 20 storms and typhoons a year. A typhoon and
another storm last week killed at least 87 people and left 80 others missing in
the east.
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