Thursday 12 April 2012

Click here to find out more! More Sharing ServicesShare | Share on facebook Share on twitter | Share on email Print Text Size With morgues full, Philippine flood victims buried

ILIGAN, Philippines - With funeral parlors overwhelmed, authorities in a flood-stricken southern Philippine city on Monday organized the first mass burial of some of nearly 700 people who were swept to their deaths in one of worst calamities to strike the region in decades.

For the first time in a day, the staggering death toll from Friday night's disaster, spawned by a tropical storm, remained little changed but the number of missing varied widely. Official figures put the missing at 82, while the Philippine Red Cross estimated 800.

The disparity underscores the difficulty in accounting for people who could be buried in the mud and debris littering much of the area or could be alive but lost in crowded evacuation centers or elsewhere.

"We lost count of how many are missing," said Benito Ramos, head of the government's Office of Civil Defense.

In Iligan, a coastal industrial hub of 330,000 people, Mayor Lawrence Cruz said the city's half a dozen parlors were full to capacity and no longer accepting bodies. The first burial of 50 or so unclaimed bodies was to take place later Monday in individual tombs at the city cemetery, he said.

"For public health purposes, we're doing this. The bodies are decomposing and there is no place where we can place them, not in an enclosed building, not in a gymnasium," Cruz told The Associated Press.

He said many of the Iligan dead — 279 by official count — "are just piled and laid outside the morgues," which ran out of formaldehyde for embalming and coffins.

"We're using plastic bags, whatever is available," Cruz said.

In nearby Cagayan de Oro city, the situation was more chaotic and people were resisting mass burials, instead demanding that bodies be interned until relatives can claim them.

About 340 died in Cagayan de Oro, most of them women and children and many of whom lived along river banks. Flood waters came gushing after 12 hours of pounding rain, catching most of them in their sleep.

Residents told local officials that plans for a mass burial was "un-Christian," said Cagayan de Oro city administrator Griscelda Joson.

Mayor Vicente Emano called a meeting later Monday to discuss the problem. Funeral parlors have asked authorities to do something about the unclaimed bodies because of the stench and complaints from neighbors, she said.

More bodies continue to be found. While city officials were meeting Sunday, more than 40 bodies were seen floating off an island but the coast guard could not recover them, Joson said.

In a grim sign of desperation, a funeral parlor dumped about 30 badly decomposed bodies in a city garbage dump over the weekend, sparking protests from distraught villagers who were looking for the missing loved ones.

Ramos, the head of the agency that is spearheading the recovery and relief operations, attributed the high casualties "partly to the complacency of people because they are not in the usual path of storms" despite warnings by officials that one was approaching.

"We've had flooding before but nothing like this," Cruz, the Iligan mayor said, recalling floods in the early 1950s. "We have a good drainage system but it as simply overwhelmed. The rainfall fell heavily on the mountains and this flowed down to two of our river systems and they overflowed and swept away houses and covered the highway and residential areas."

About 143,000 people were affected in 13 southern and central provinces, including 45,000 who fled to evacuation centers. About 7,000 houses were swept away, destroyed or damaged, the Office of Civil Defense said.

An estimated 35 percent of evacuees are children, said Trevor Clark, head of UNICEF in the southern Mindanao region. Running water and hygiene were major concerns, followed by a lack of clothing, blankets and even shoes for young children, he said.

Although he said government agencies were responding in a quick and efficient manner, they were overwhelmed and the United Nations was preparing an appeal for urgent assistance from donors and foreign governments.

11 December 2011

http://www.cbs8.com/story/16353370/with-morgues-full-philippine-flood-victims-buried

continue reading

Benue church victims to be buried April 20

The 22 victims of the collapsed St. Robert's Church in Vandeikya Local Government Area of Benue will be buried on April 20, a statement from the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi has said.

The statement, signed by the Rt. Rev. William Avenya, the Auxiliary Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, said the burial would take place at St. Robert's, Adamgbe, near Vandeikya.

It expressed the hope that the families involved would allow the burial take place at the venue.
``We are hoping that the families involved will allow us to bury the 22 corpses in one location and the vestments shall be white," the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the church as saying in the statement.

The statement also said that those who sustained injuries and in different medical centres around the area were responding to treatment.

The 22 persons were killed, while many others injured when a storm pulled down St. Robert’s Church building in Vandeikya, Benue, on Holy Saturday.

continue reading

Wall Of Water: The Tsunami Explained

During a tsunami the ocean suddenly floods the coast, smashing everything in its path, and then just as quickly recedes.

Large quakes are the main cause of tsunamis, but they can also be sparked by other cataclysmic events, such as volcanic eruptions and even landslides.

During a strong quake, oceanic plates can lurch many metres and rupture the ocean floor.
This movement can suddenly move a massive amount of water.

Major quakes that rupture the ocean floor are usually shallow quakes occurring at a depth of less than 44 miles (70km).

The 9.1 magnitude quake that caused the devastating 2004 Boxing Day tsunami was 18 miles (30km) below the seafloor.

The movement of the quake can also affect the likelihood of a tsunami occuring.
The vertical movement of some earthquakes can cause the seabed to heave and displace water vertically, sending towering waves racing toward shores.

The 2004 tsunami, which killed nearly a quarter of a million people, and the 2011 disaster in Japan were both caused by these "mega thrust" quakes.

Strike-slip quakes cause a horizontal - instead of vertical - movement, with the tectonic plates sliding against each other, creating more of a vibration in the water.

On the ocean surface, tsunamis start as an insignificant ripple capable of passing under a ship unnoticed, but they become giants as they approach land and the ocean becomes shallow.
A tsunami is not a single wave, but a series of waves.

They can travel across the ocean at speeds of up to 620mph (1,000km), the speed of a jet aircraft.

A tsunami can travel across the Pacific Ocean in less than a day. As the trough of the wave drags along the sea floor, slowing it down, the crest rises up dramatically and sends a giant wall of whitewater onto land. And the first wave may not be the biggest.

The destructive force of a tsunami comes not from the height of the wave, but from the volume of water moving inside it.

The word tsunami is derived from the Japanese words for "harbour" and "wave".

Wedn 11 April 2012

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16206542

continue reading

The Victims Affairs Discusses Cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Victims Affairs Office of the Central Operation Headquarters in the Abu Dhabi Police discussed mutual cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the case of crisis and disasters. The cooperation will be in the field of providing data and information regarding expatriates who are residents in the country and communicating with them during crisis or disaster situations.

A delegation headed by Major Raed Ali Al Muhairi, Director of the Victims Affairs Office visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and met with Mohammed Jasem Al Nwais, Deputy Director of Citizens Affairs Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Al Muhairi gave a summary about the work of the Victims Affairs Office, which provides complete information during and after crisis in order to identify those victims in major accidents and natural disasters within a short period of time, and contact their families.

He pointed out that the office focuses on receiving notifications in case of accidents and possible crisis, calling the families of victims and answering their questions and inquiries. The office also contributes to fulfilling specific social goals in the local community such as providing social and psychological support to the families of victims, missing, and injured, as well as offering support to survivors.

The meeting was attended by a number of officers from the Victims Affairs Office in Abu Dhabi and Departments Directors in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Wednesday, 11 April, 2012

http://www.adpolice.gov.ae/en/News/victm.aff.meeting.aspx

continue reading