Death toll of Typhoon Bopha could reach as high as 2,000 with 906 confirmed dead and 932 missing, most of them in hard-hit south Philippines, a senior official said, adding that retrieval missions have continued despite the difficulties they have encountered in devastated areas.
“We will not yet officially declare the missing as dead, unless we find their bodies,” Undersecretary Benito Ramos, also head of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said in a radio interview.
Aided by K-9 units trained to find missing people, private and government rescuers were emboldened and refused to give up retrieving at least 505 people who were reported missing in the municipalities of Compostela, Monkayo, and New Bataan in hard-hit Compostela Valley, said Undersecretary Ramos.
Rescuers were also assigned to find 108 more who were reported missing in Boston, Cateel, Baganga, and Caraga municipalities in Davao Oriental, where Typhoon Bopha initially landed on December 4, said Ramos.
Noting the difficulty encountered by the rescue teams, Ramos said, “Rotting corpses of animals have been confusing the dogs.”
Thick mud on almost all devastated places has been preventing rescuers to get the buried corpses, said Ramos.
“We saw eight unidentified bodies. The bodies were decomposing and unrecognizable. Two of them were children. A few moments later, rescuers found another body underneath the mud and a fallen tree.
The same rescue team found 56 bodies in New Bataan, said ABS CBN.
The team quoted Aldo Mayor, a veteran rescuer, as saying, “This is my first time to see (the effect of) a massive flash flood.”
The same rescue team was elated when they found a survivor, Narsing Loreta, who said he hid in his wood fired oven at the height of the landslide.
About 5.516 people were affected by the typhoon. Only 59,764 more remained in evacuation centres, NDRRMC said.
Many residents have left their homes and went to nearby areas where they could find food and livelihood.
Some 20 typhoons visit the Philippines every year.
Friday 14 December 2012
http://m.gulfnews.com/news/world/philippines/bopha-s-death-toll-may-reach-2000-1.1118660
0 comments:
Post a Comment