PHILIPPINES: Flood waters receded in the Philippines yesterday but thousands of people remained cut off from help, hungry and at risk of disease after a week of severe flooding.
Soldiers buried nearly 100 people killed in landslides in northern Aurora province, as typhoon Nanmadol swept north towards Taiwan.
The typhoon added to the misery of thousands in the northern Philippines made homeless by landslides and floods from other storms this week that have left more than 1,000 dead or missing.
"We need one great heave to deliver the relief supplies, find the missing, rescue the isolated, feed the hungry and shelter the homeless," President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said on national television.
Logging has been blamed for exacerbating the weather disaster, which has forced more than 200,000 people from their homes. Many were running out of food and clean water and power was cut in some areas.
"Our biggest enemy now is diarrhoea, especially in areas where water and food are contaminated," Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit told radio.
He urged people to bury their dead quickly.
However, officials said casualties from the latest storm appeared to be low because people were better prepared after three major storms in two weeks.
A remote village was flattened on Monday night by mudslides that carried boulders and logs, but it took soldiers until yesterday to bring relief because roads were cut by floodwaters and slips, a military spokesman said.
Nanmadol has moved into the South China Sea and was heading towards Taiwan, but its winds have slowed to 120 k.p.h. from 185 k..ph. when it first hit the Philippines.
Taiwan has been battered by a string of typhoons and tropical storms this year, but Typhoon Nanmadol would be the first in over 100 years to arrive in December.
The official death toll from floods and landslides is 407, but that is expected to rise.
With helicopters grounded and roads cut, thousands of people have been sleeping in makeshift shelters and were short of food and drinking water.
- (Reuters)