Relief arrives as toll hits 900

DISASTER agencies yesterday delivered body bags, food, water, and medicine to crowded evacuation centres in the southern Philippines as officials ordered the digging of graves to prevent disease after hundreds died in flash floods.

The national disaster agency, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said 927 died after Typhoon Washi slammed ashore in Mindanao island while residents slept at the weekend, sending torrents of water and mud through riverside villages and sweeping houses out to sea.

The head of the national disaster agency, Benito Ramos, said they had lost count of all those still missing. He had earlier suggested digging mass graves to prevent outbreaks of disease, but the two worst hit cities took different approaches.