Toll In Philippine Floods Tops 1,000; Typhoon Hits
Date: 03-Dec-04
Country: PHILLIPINES
Author: Erik de Castro
Residents of three coastal towns that suffered most of the casualties from heavy rains this week fled to higher ground to escape Typhoon Nanmadol's rains and 185 kph (115 mph) winds.
"Based on reports from our troops in the field, they have listed 479 dead and 560 missing in three towns in Quezon province," said military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Buenaventura Pascual.
With helicopters grounded and roads cut, disaster officials said they could do little to protect thousands of people who had lost their homes and were running out of food and drinking water.
"We are very concerned and we are not sure how we can avoid further casualties in these areas," Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman told Reuters.
The typhoon made landfall at Aurora province north of Manila, where several people died and thousands were displaced by a storm just over a week ago.
The National Disaster Coordinating Council said five people died on Thursday night when they were crushed by falling trees in central Samar island.
Airlines cancelled some flights and thousands were stranded at ports after ferries halted services. Officials said Manila financial markets would not open on Friday, and the government ordered schools and public offices to close.
Illegal logging was blamed for exacerbating the disaster in which the three towns about 80 km (50 miles) east of Manila were devastated by a torrent of mud and logs from nearby mountains.
Disaster officials said 37,400 families, or 168,000 people, had been affected across the main northern island of Luzon.
The agriculture department said this week's storm and two others that hit the northern and central Philippines last month had caused an estimated 830 million pesos ($14.7 million) in damage to crops, livestock and fisheries.
Soliman said the government, deep in debt and struggling to cut its budget deficit, would have to spend 90 percent of the 1 billion pesos it sets aside annually for disaster relief.
APPEAL FOR HELP
Hundreds of people from the town of Real, where at least 150 people died, trudged through deep mud on Thursday afternoon to try to reach higher ground before the typhoon hit.
Swathes of Real and two nearby towns, mostly inhabited by fishermen and farmers, were buried under chocolate-coloured mud.
"We are very scared, that's why we are walking again to a higher area," said Lolita Serrano, 53, from the area near Real.
"We haven't eaten in two days and haven't received anything from the government."
The government said it could not cope alone with the disaster and appealed for international assistance.
Japan said it would provide 15 million pesos worth of aid in the form of tents, generators, water tanks and other items. The US Embassy announced it would give $100,000 to the Philippine Red Cross to provide assistance to flood victims.
Elma Aldea, an official at the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), said the US military had promised to provide engineers to help to clear roads and build bridges.
"There is no potable water in these areas and we are afraid there will be an epidemic," she said.
Lieutenant-Colonel Restituto Padilla told Reuters that air force pilots had seen dozens of bodies floating in swollen rivers or buried in waist-deep mud.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered a nationwide crackdown on Wednesday on illegal logging, blamed for several landslide disasters in recent years.
But many were sceptical, given that previous crackdowns had failed to stamp out the practice, which experts say is worth millions of dollars a year to smugglers and corrupt politicians.
(Additional reporting by Stuart Grudgings, Manny Mogato and Carmina Reyes)
