Typhoon kills over 1,000 in Philippines
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-12-03 10:31

A powerful typhoon sliced through the Philippines on Friday, forcing more than 160,000 people to flee their homes to higher ground even as rescuers struggled to find the missing from an earlier storm that killed more than 420 people.

There was an unconfirmed report more than 1,000 were dead or unaccounted for from the typhoon that hit the Philippines earlier this week. Civil defence officials said at least 422 people were confirmed dead and another 177 missing. The military reported a toll of 479 dead and 560 missing but regional commander Maj.-Gen. Pedro Cabuay cautioned the figures were based on numbers provided by local officials that could not be immediately confirmed.

Mudslides and flash-floods caused by the earlier storm have turned entire provinces facing the Pacific Ocean into a sea of chocolate-brown mud littered with bodies, uprooted trees, collapsed homes and bridges.

Survivors sifted through piles of mud, which in some towns was ankle deep, for clothes and belongings. Soldiers, police and medical workers trekked with relief supplies across flood-ravaged roads and bare mountains to reach towns cut off by landslides.

In the town Infanta in Quezon province, east of the capital Manila, where at least 100 died, officials allowed residents to briefly leave evacuation centres to retrieve belongings from damaged homes but warned them to return because of the typhoon.

"We are not concerned so much about saving property. We just want to save lives," said Infanta Mayor Filipina America.

The latest storm, Typhoon Nanmadol, made landfall late Thursday along the northeastern coast with sustained winds of up to 185 kilometres an hour and gusts of up to 222 km/h, disrupting maritime rescue operations and partially grounding the Philippine air force.

Schools and government offices remained closed Friday in Manila and the rest of the country, the presidential office announced. The coast guard prevented ferries, small boats and fishermen from leaving ports and the air force said the bad weather had basically grounded its rescue fleet.

The typhoon drenched Manila and most of the country, causing flooding on some streets and temporary power outages in the capital.

In coastal Mercedes, 233 kilometres southeast of Manila, about 2,000 people moved into a school as heavy rains and strong winds lashed the area. Similar evacuations took place throughout the region, where people took refugee in sturdy buildings.

The Office of Civil Defence reported as many as 168,000 people have been evacuated.

Rough seas and debris forced a navy gunboat to turn around after it tried to bring food and medicine to Real, in Quezon province, the town hardest hit by the previous storm. A landslide there earlier this week killed at least 150, said navy spokesman Capt. Geronimo Malabanan.

About 400 troops set out for Real on foot with relief supplies in their backpacks and in boxes perched on their heads, inching along a route blocked by up to 20 landslides, said regional military commander Maj.-Gen. Pedro Cabuay.

"They will carry as many supplies as they can," he said.

Television footage showed landslide-hit towns with mud-covered bodies laid out in common areas, where anguished mothers wept for their children. Fathers and brothers, meanwhile, clawed through mud in a desperate search for missing loved ones.

One woman frantically called ABS-CBN television, begging to be rescued from a rooftop.

"All my relatives are dead. I survived because I was able to go to the roof," she said.

"My sister is dead, my husband is dead."

The Philippines is hit by about 20 storms and typhoons a year. A typhoon and another storm last week killed at least 87 people and left 80 others missing in the east.