Relief workers battled rain and choppy seas yesterday to deliver food and medicine to the country's northeast following devastating back-to-back storms that killed at least 568 people and left hundreds more missing.
The mayor of Real, one of the three coastal towns worst hit by flash floods and mudslides last week, said at least three mountain villages remain isolated from rescuers, though they were not believed to be as severely affected.
Philippine officials have appealed for international aid, but the bad weather and damaged infrastructure were hampering relief efforts.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has blamed illegal logging for exacerbating the floods, and said those responsible would be prosecuted like hardened criminals. She also imposed a moratorium on logging.
Real and the nearby towns of Infanta and General Nakar, about 70km east of Manila, were accessible only by boats and helicopters. Ships were unable to reach far-flung villages because of floating debris, and rubber boats ferried relief goods from ship to shore.
"What we need are food, water and medicine, plus temporary shelter," Mayor Arsenio Ramallosa said. "Tents and even tarpaulins will do. Thankfully, we have had continuous flow of relief supplies and those that run out are being replenished."
He said workers clearing roads that were blocked by landslides were slowly making their way to Real, but he was told by engineers that large boulders may have to be blasted with explosive.
He said at least 250 people have been counted dead in Real, but that dozens more bodies were buried in a building that collapsed under a mudslide.
Most of the destruction was wrought by a tropical storm that blew through northeastern provinces Nov. 29, killing at least 530 people and leaving 607 missing. Typhoon Nanmadol struck the same region three days later, leaving 38 dead and 33 missing, according to the Office of Civil Defense.
In Infanta, next to Real, residents appealed to authorities to be allowed to leave on rescue helicopters delivering food aid. But casualties were given priority seats.
Mildred delos Santos tried unsuccessfully to get her 78-year-old mother, who is suffering from hypertension, and 10-year-old daughter on a helicopter to Manila. She said they saved themselves from debris-laden floodwaters by breaking a hole through their roof and getting on top of their house.
"It was terrible. We saw one family of about 15 cling to a tree, but the tree was also washed away by the flood. They died," she said. "They were pitiful. Those people were shouting for help but we could not do anything. We were on the roof."
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
Russia early yesterday bombarded Ukraine, killing two people in the Kyiv region, authorities said on the eve of a diplomatic summit in France. A nationwide siren was issued just after midnight, while Ukraine’s military said air defenses were operating in several places. In the capital, a private medical facility caught fire as a result of the Russian strikes, killing one person and wounding three others, the State Emergency Service of Kyiv said. It released images of rescuers removing people on stretchers from a gutted building. Another pre-dawn attack on the neighboring city of Fastiv killed one man in his 70s, Kyiv Governor Mykola
RSS