Philippine Troops Rush Relief to Flood Victims
Date: 12-Dec-05
Country: PHILIPPINES
Author: Manny Mogato
Two people were missing and presumed dead after a landslide on Wednesday in Pagbilao town in Quezon province. In Calapan City on Mindoro island, rescue workers recovered the body of a man who drowned in floods on Thursday.
Neri Amparo, operations chief of the Office of Civil Defence, said residents of Mindoro, parts of which were under chest-deep water, should brace for more rain until Sunday, citing forecasts of a heavy monsoon across wide areas of the Philippines.
She said troops were mobilised to evacuate people to higher ground and ration food to those who wanted to stay.
"In the culture of Filipinos, we do not want to leave our homes," Amparo said. "That's why we agreed that those who will not go to the evacuation centre will be given food through rationing, utilising the rubber boats."
She said displaced families were gathered at public halls, gymnasiums and school buildings after rains at the start of the week inundated Quezon, Camarines Norte and Mindoro provinces, damaging farms, homes and infrastructure.
Close to 200,000 people have been affected by flash floods triggered by heavy rain and bursting dykes, but water levels in some areas had started to recede on Friday.
Doy Leachon, an official in Calapan City, said dykes protecting the city had been breached due to swelling rivers.
Disaster officials said Calapan City was the worst hit by flooding, forcing the local government to place the province under a state of calamity.
Environmental activists said the floods were exacerbated by logging, slash-and-burn farming and quarrying in the mountains in Quezon and Mindoro.
The Philippines is hit by about 20 typhoons and big tropical storms each year. The most destructive in recent times was Typhoon Thelma, which struck Leyte island in November 1991, unleashing floods in Ormoc City that killed about 5,000 people.
Late last year, just before the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami, four fierce storms triggered landslides and floods that left 1,600 people dead or missing and hundreds of thousands displaced in several provinces north and east of Manila.
The Philippines was not affected by the tsunami.
