WUNRN
THE PHILIPPINES - FLOODING CRISIS -
NO WARNING - WOMEN & CHILDREN
Volunteers
use rubber a boat to ferry residents to safer grounds following a flash flood
that inundated Cagayan de Oro city,
MANILA,
Philippines (AP) — Pounding rain from a tropical storm swelled rivers and sent
walls of water crushing into two southern Philippine cities in the thick of
night, killing at least 436 people, many caught in their beds, officials
said Saturday.
Philippine Red
Cross Secretary General Gwen
Pang told The
Associated Press that the latest toll was based on a body count in funeral
parlors. She said that 215 died in Cagayan
de Oro and 144 in nearby Iligan, and the rest in several other southern and
central provinces.
Most
of the dead were asleep Friday night when raging floodwaters tore through their
homes from swollen rivers and cascaded from mountain slopes following 12 hours
of pounding rain in the southern Mindanao region. The region is unaccustomed to
the typhoons that are common elsewhere in the archipelago nation.
Many
of the bodies in parlors were unclaimed, indicating that entire families had
perished, Pang said.
The
number of missing was unclear Saturday night. Before the latest Red Cross
figures, military spokesman Lt. Col. Randolph
Cabangbang said about 250 people were still unaccounted for in Iligan.
Thousands
of soldiers backed up by hundreds of local police, reservists, coast guard
officers and civilian volunteers were mobilized for rescue efforts and to clean
up after the massive deluge that left the two coastal cities strewn with
debris, trash, overturned vehicles and toppled trees.
Many
roads were cut off and there was no electricity, hampering relief efforts.
Some
of the dead were swept out to sea from Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, which are
intersected by rivers and flanked by mountains.
Chief
of the government's Civil
Defense Office Benito Ramos attributed the high casualties in Mindanao
"partly to the complacency of people because they are not in the usual
path of storms" despite four days of warnings by officials that one
was approaching.
Ayi
Hernandez, a former congressman, said he and his family were resting in their
home late Friday when they heard a loud "swooshing sound" and water
quickly rose ankle deep inside his home. He decided to evacuate to a neighbor's
two-story house.
"It
was a good thing because in less than an hour the water rose to about 11 feet
(3.3 meters)," the height of the ceiling of his house, he said.
A man
in Cagayan de Oro said he heard a cry for help around 10 p.m. while the
floodwaters were still low.
"Suddenly,
there was a very strong rush of water," the man, who was not identified,
told a local TV station.
The
floodwaters were waist-high in some neighborhoods that do not usually
experience flooding. Scores of residents escaped the floods by climbing onto
the roofs of their homes, Iligan Mayor Lawrence
Cruz said.
Those
missing included prominent radio broadcaster Enie
Alsonado, who was swept away while trying to save his neighbors,
Cruz said.
Rep. Rufus
Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro said that about 20,000 residents of the city
had been affected and that evacuees were packed in temporary shelters.
Television
footage showed muddy water rushing in the streets, sweeping away all sorts of
debris. Thick layers of mud coated streets where the waters had subsided. One
car was shown to have been carried over a concrete fence.
Authorities
recovered bodies from the mud after the water subsided. Parts of concrete walls
and roofs, toppled vehicles and other debris littered the streets.
Rescuers
in boats rushed offshore to save people swept out to sea. In Misamis Oriental
province, 60 people were plucked from the ocean off El Salvador city, about 6
miles (10 kilometers) northwest of Cagayan de Oro, said disaster official Teddy
Sabuga-a.
About
120 more were rescued off Opol township, closer to the city, he added.
Cruz
said the coast guard and other rescuers were scouring the waters off Iligan for
survivors or bodies that may have been swept away.
Tropical
Storm Washi dumped on Mindanao more than a month of average rains in just
12 hours.
It
quickly cut across the region overnight and headed for Palawan province
southwest of Manila on Saturday night.
Forecaster
Leny
Ruiz said that the records show that storms that follow Washi's track come
only once in about 12 years.
Lucilo
Bayron, vice mayor of Puerto Princesa in Palawan, said he already mobilized
emergency crews but local officials have not ordered an evacuation yet because
the weather was still fine.
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