News from The Philippine Star
‘State of national calamity’
By Paolo Romero
The Philippine Star 12/04/2006
President Arroyo declared yesterday a "state of national calamity" as hopes for finding survivors of typhoon-triggered mudslides in Albay vanished, with emergency workers fearing the death toll could exceed 1,000.
Mrs. Arroyo ordered the release of P1 billion initially for relief and rehabilitation efforts in areas affected by "Reming" (international code name Durian) and two previous destructive typhoons this year — "Milenyo" and "Paeng."
The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) reported 309 bodies were retrieved, 298 people remained missing and 414 were injured three days after Reming struck, triggering deadly mudslides from Mayon volcano in Albay.
Aside from the Bicol region, Reming also ravaged Marinduque and parts of Mindoro.
Sen. Richard Gordon, who heads the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC), said the death toll could easily reach 700 "on the low side," based on official casualty figures and reports his group obtained from mayors of devastated villages.
As emergency workers and residents continued to dig bodies from the mud, PNRC officials said they had confirmed 406 deaths and another 398 missing.
"Many are saying the death toll could exceed 1,000," Gordon said. "People are telling us entire families and villages have disappeared.
"There are many unidentified bodies, there could be a lot more hidden below. Whole families may have been wiped out," Gordon told AP by phone.
Gordon said in one funeral parlor, 40 bodies had gone unclaimed. "If they were unclaimed, it is likely their relatives were buried as well," he said.
"At a certain point in time, we will just have to say, we cannot do anymore. We are not going to find any more (bodies)," Gordon added.
In a rare case, residents of the riverside town of Rawis used handtools in a desperate attempt to reach five college students they believed were trapped in a ruined dormitory.
No survivors are known to have been pulled from the swampy land since the first hours after Reming blasted ashore Thursday with winds gusting up to 265 kph.
PNRC said as many as 31 villages with some 14,871 residents were hit by the mudflows.
The PNRC has also been asked to look for two foreigners missing in Albay province. Brecon Wieyan, 24, from Australia, and John Cochrin, 59, from New Zealand were on their way to Sorsogon when the typhoon struck.
The first funerals took place Saturday evening as bodies rapidly decomposed in the tropical heat.
All but two dozen of the deaths occurred in worst-hit Albay, including 165 in the town of Guinobatan, swamped by floodwaters in Mayon volcano’s foothills. Four other provinces reported fatalities, but accurate casualty figures were hard to come by, with the disaster’s devastation so widespread and power and phone lines down. In some places, rescue workers found only body parts.
"We need food, tents, water, body bags," PNRC official Andrew Nocon told dzMM radio Saturday. "We sent initially 300 bags, but we need more."
Ramses Valerio, science research specialist for Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said heavy rains could still trigger mudslides around Mayon. "There is danger if river channels overflow due to heavy rains," he said. Valerio said there is still a large amount of mud in and around Mayon’s crater. Tsunami scare
Tales of tragedy and loss abound as power, communications and water remain out of service in most of the Bicol region, further hampering rescue and relief efforts.
At a hospital in Legazpi, survivor Arthur Atierros, 37 tried to comfort his distraught wife Mercy, 35, whose leg was amputated after the wall of their home collapsed on her.
Their nine-year-old daughter, Armira stood nearby, the only one of four children they were able to find after mud swamped their home.
Atierros said he and his relatives carried his wife for eight hours on a makeshift stretcher to the hospital.
Nearby, Adrian Bagasala was tending to his 29-year-old wife, Ivy, who also had to have her leg amputated when their home collapsed.
Bagasala said he dug his seven-month pregnant wife out of the mud but the strain caused her to go into labor, giving birth prematurely. The infant died soon after birth.
Silangan Santander, 21, attended a funeral for her brother, Larry. Only his lower torso and legs were found near the sea.
Deeply traumatized by the tragedy, Albay’s coastal residents reacted in terror to rumors of a coming tsunami yesterday.
Cedric Daep, chief of Albay’s Provincial Disaster Management Office, said hundreds of people - some even crying - ran in panic while dozens of others begged for rides from motorists along Maharlika Highway. There had also been cases of vehicle smashup along the highway.
Daep said a woman who had just delivered a baby hurriedly left a hospital and was nearly hit by a rushing vehicle. He said there had also been reports of injuries from stampede and of people dying of heart attack.
"We had to make a denial, that there’s no truth to the tsunami reports through mobile public address system from Legazpi City up to the coastal towns of Albay’s first district including Tabaco City," Daep told The STAR. Country grateful
Mrs. Arroyo ordered no letup in the search for survivors even as she led the nation in thanking the international community for the "outpouring of sympathy" and assistance.
"Even as the nation continues to grieve on this tragedy, the Filipino people are grateful for the outpouring of prayers and support extended to us from all around the world," Mrs. Arroyo said.
The latest pledge of assistance amounting to US$780,000 came from Australia which also conveyed its condolences through Ambassador Tony Hely.
"This (outpouring of support) must send a clear message to us all to keep our hopes high and have unity amid the challenges posed to us by this calamity. All resources of the government will continue to be mobilized without letup as we pin hope against hope on the search of survivors," she said in a statement.
"We need to rise up from this trial and help rebuild devastated communities and lives," she said. Earlier expressions of sympathy and aid pledges came from the Vatican, Canada, Spain, Russia, Japan, Pakistan, Singapore, New Zealand, United States Agency for International Development, the Netherlands. and the International Federation of Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies.
Presidential Chief of Staff Michael Defensor, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. and NDCC deputy executive director Dr. Anthony Golez flew to Albay yesterday on a C-130 cargo plane along with Japanese and Spanish rescue volunteers and 80,000 pounds of relief goods that included medicines, clothes and canned food.
"We were ordered to embed ourselves in the area (Bicol region) to make a final estimate of the cost of repairs and rehabilitation and to consolidate and coordinate government and private restoration efforts," Andaya said in a telephone interview.
"It’s important that we get a picture of the situation so we will know where to pinpoint aid, in this way, we will be sending the right kind of aid in the right amount or right volume to the right people who will need them," he said.
Andaya said Defensor "will be the President’s eyes and ears on the ground" who "will give feedback and requests to Manila so that things needed can be dispatched immediately."
He said that aside from food and medicines, earthmoving equipment and chain saws are needed in the affected areas, particularly Albay.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said a total of 170,000 pounds of relief goods have been airlifted so far to the Bicol region and Marinduque.
Press Assistant Secretary Joe Capadocia said the President will visit Bicol tomorrow before proceeding to a Cabinet meeting on anti-poverty programs in Iloilo City.
Capadocia said Mrs. Arroyo will take an early plane to Pili, Naga and then proceed to Pasacao, Camarines Sur on a helicopter. From Pasacao, she will take the same chopper to Legazpi City to meet with local officials. After the visits, she will proceed to Iloilo for the Cabinet meeting. Damage report
The Office of Civil Defense said more than 832,000 residents of 1,019 villages in the Bicol region, Marinduque, and parts of Mindoro were affected by Reming. Of the figure, nearly 17,000 individuals are in evacuation centers.
More than 28,000 houses in the affected areas were totally destroyed and roughly 91,000 partially damaged.
OCD placed the damage to infrastructure and agriculture at P23.2 million and P11 million, respectively.
OCD said the Bondoc Peninsula in Quezon and the Bicol region are still without power due to the tripping of the 230 kilovolt Gumaca-Labo and Tayabas—Naga line. Marinduque, Oriental Mindoro and Occidental Mindoro are also without electricity as of press time.
But the Maharlika Highway from Manila to Legazpi and Sorsogon is now open to all types of vehicles, OCD said.
Reports from Catanduanes as of Saturday showed 11 people dead, and two each missing and injured, Maj. Ernesto Torres, Army spokesman said.
For nearly three hours late Thursday afternoon, mudslides ripped through Mayon’s gullies, uprooting trees, flattening houses and swallowing people.
"Every corner of this province has been hit. It is a total devastation," Albay Gov. Fernando Gonzalez said earlier. "Never before in the history have we seen water like this. Almost every residential area was flooded."
The disaster came after some 30,000 people were evacuated from the slopes of Mayon in August amid signs that the volcano was again erupting. However the residents were allowed to return home in September after the volcano simmered down. - With Cet Dematera, James Mananghaya, Helen Flores, AP, AFP
http://www.philstar.com/philstar/News200612040401.htm
By Paolo Romero
The Philippine Star 12/04/2006
President Arroyo declared yesterday a "state of national calamity" as hopes for finding survivors of typhoon-triggered mudslides in Albay vanished, with emergency workers fearing the death toll could exceed 1,000.
Mrs. Arroyo ordered the release of P1 billion initially for relief and rehabilitation efforts in areas affected by "Reming" (international code name Durian) and two previous destructive typhoons this year — "Milenyo" and "Paeng."
The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) reported 309 bodies were retrieved, 298 people remained missing and 414 were injured three days after Reming struck, triggering deadly mudslides from Mayon volcano in Albay.
Aside from the Bicol region, Reming also ravaged Marinduque and parts of Mindoro.
Sen. Richard Gordon, who heads the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC), said the death toll could easily reach 700 "on the low side," based on official casualty figures and reports his group obtained from mayors of devastated villages.
As emergency workers and residents continued to dig bodies from the mud, PNRC officials said they had confirmed 406 deaths and another 398 missing.
"Many are saying the death toll could exceed 1,000," Gordon said. "People are telling us entire families and villages have disappeared.
"There are many unidentified bodies, there could be a lot more hidden below. Whole families may have been wiped out," Gordon told AP by phone.
Gordon said in one funeral parlor, 40 bodies had gone unclaimed. "If they were unclaimed, it is likely their relatives were buried as well," he said.
"At a certain point in time, we will just have to say, we cannot do anymore. We are not going to find any more (bodies)," Gordon added.
In a rare case, residents of the riverside town of Rawis used handtools in a desperate attempt to reach five college students they believed were trapped in a ruined dormitory.
No survivors are known to have been pulled from the swampy land since the first hours after Reming blasted ashore Thursday with winds gusting up to 265 kph.
PNRC said as many as 31 villages with some 14,871 residents were hit by the mudflows.
The PNRC has also been asked to look for two foreigners missing in Albay province. Brecon Wieyan, 24, from Australia, and John Cochrin, 59, from New Zealand were on their way to Sorsogon when the typhoon struck.
The first funerals took place Saturday evening as bodies rapidly decomposed in the tropical heat.
All but two dozen of the deaths occurred in worst-hit Albay, including 165 in the town of Guinobatan, swamped by floodwaters in Mayon volcano’s foothills. Four other provinces reported fatalities, but accurate casualty figures were hard to come by, with the disaster’s devastation so widespread and power and phone lines down. In some places, rescue workers found only body parts.
"We need food, tents, water, body bags," PNRC official Andrew Nocon told dzMM radio Saturday. "We sent initially 300 bags, but we need more."
Ramses Valerio, science research specialist for Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said heavy rains could still trigger mudslides around Mayon. "There is danger if river channels overflow due to heavy rains," he said. Valerio said there is still a large amount of mud in and around Mayon’s crater. Tsunami scare
Tales of tragedy and loss abound as power, communications and water remain out of service in most of the Bicol region, further hampering rescue and relief efforts.
At a hospital in Legazpi, survivor Arthur Atierros, 37 tried to comfort his distraught wife Mercy, 35, whose leg was amputated after the wall of their home collapsed on her.
Their nine-year-old daughter, Armira stood nearby, the only one of four children they were able to find after mud swamped their home.
Atierros said he and his relatives carried his wife for eight hours on a makeshift stretcher to the hospital.
Nearby, Adrian Bagasala was tending to his 29-year-old wife, Ivy, who also had to have her leg amputated when their home collapsed.
Bagasala said he dug his seven-month pregnant wife out of the mud but the strain caused her to go into labor, giving birth prematurely. The infant died soon after birth.
Silangan Santander, 21, attended a funeral for her brother, Larry. Only his lower torso and legs were found near the sea.
Deeply traumatized by the tragedy, Albay’s coastal residents reacted in terror to rumors of a coming tsunami yesterday.
Cedric Daep, chief of Albay’s Provincial Disaster Management Office, said hundreds of people - some even crying - ran in panic while dozens of others begged for rides from motorists along Maharlika Highway. There had also been cases of vehicle smashup along the highway.
Daep said a woman who had just delivered a baby hurriedly left a hospital and was nearly hit by a rushing vehicle. He said there had also been reports of injuries from stampede and of people dying of heart attack.
"We had to make a denial, that there’s no truth to the tsunami reports through mobile public address system from Legazpi City up to the coastal towns of Albay’s first district including Tabaco City," Daep told The STAR. Country grateful
Mrs. Arroyo ordered no letup in the search for survivors even as she led the nation in thanking the international community for the "outpouring of sympathy" and assistance.
"Even as the nation continues to grieve on this tragedy, the Filipino people are grateful for the outpouring of prayers and support extended to us from all around the world," Mrs. Arroyo said.
The latest pledge of assistance amounting to US$780,000 came from Australia which also conveyed its condolences through Ambassador Tony Hely.
"This (outpouring of support) must send a clear message to us all to keep our hopes high and have unity amid the challenges posed to us by this calamity. All resources of the government will continue to be mobilized without letup as we pin hope against hope on the search of survivors," she said in a statement.
"We need to rise up from this trial and help rebuild devastated communities and lives," she said. Earlier expressions of sympathy and aid pledges came from the Vatican, Canada, Spain, Russia, Japan, Pakistan, Singapore, New Zealand, United States Agency for International Development, the Netherlands. and the International Federation of Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies.
Presidential Chief of Staff Michael Defensor, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. and NDCC deputy executive director Dr. Anthony Golez flew to Albay yesterday on a C-130 cargo plane along with Japanese and Spanish rescue volunteers and 80,000 pounds of relief goods that included medicines, clothes and canned food.
"We were ordered to embed ourselves in the area (Bicol region) to make a final estimate of the cost of repairs and rehabilitation and to consolidate and coordinate government and private restoration efforts," Andaya said in a telephone interview.
"It’s important that we get a picture of the situation so we will know where to pinpoint aid, in this way, we will be sending the right kind of aid in the right amount or right volume to the right people who will need them," he said.
Andaya said Defensor "will be the President’s eyes and ears on the ground" who "will give feedback and requests to Manila so that things needed can be dispatched immediately."
He said that aside from food and medicines, earthmoving equipment and chain saws are needed in the affected areas, particularly Albay.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said a total of 170,000 pounds of relief goods have been airlifted so far to the Bicol region and Marinduque.
Press Assistant Secretary Joe Capadocia said the President will visit Bicol tomorrow before proceeding to a Cabinet meeting on anti-poverty programs in Iloilo City.
Capadocia said Mrs. Arroyo will take an early plane to Pili, Naga and then proceed to Pasacao, Camarines Sur on a helicopter. From Pasacao, she will take the same chopper to Legazpi City to meet with local officials. After the visits, she will proceed to Iloilo for the Cabinet meeting. Damage report
The Office of Civil Defense said more than 832,000 residents of 1,019 villages in the Bicol region, Marinduque, and parts of Mindoro were affected by Reming. Of the figure, nearly 17,000 individuals are in evacuation centers.
More than 28,000 houses in the affected areas were totally destroyed and roughly 91,000 partially damaged.
OCD placed the damage to infrastructure and agriculture at P23.2 million and P11 million, respectively.
OCD said the Bondoc Peninsula in Quezon and the Bicol region are still without power due to the tripping of the 230 kilovolt Gumaca-Labo and Tayabas—Naga line. Marinduque, Oriental Mindoro and Occidental Mindoro are also without electricity as of press time.
But the Maharlika Highway from Manila to Legazpi and Sorsogon is now open to all types of vehicles, OCD said.
Reports from Catanduanes as of Saturday showed 11 people dead, and two each missing and injured, Maj. Ernesto Torres, Army spokesman said.
For nearly three hours late Thursday afternoon, mudslides ripped through Mayon’s gullies, uprooting trees, flattening houses and swallowing people.
"Every corner of this province has been hit. It is a total devastation," Albay Gov. Fernando Gonzalez said earlier. "Never before in the history have we seen water like this. Almost every residential area was flooded."
The disaster came after some 30,000 people were evacuated from the slopes of Mayon in August amid signs that the volcano was again erupting. However the residents were allowed to return home in September after the volcano simmered down. - With Cet Dematera, James Mananghaya, Helen Flores, AP, AFP
http://www.philstar.com/philstar/News200612040401.htm
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