Filipino villagers seek escape after storms kill 568

After days of wading through mud and floodwaters, exhausted residents today scrambled for a seat on a helicopter or a ferry to escape coastal villages ravaged by back-to-back storms that killed at least 568 people and left as many missing.

Philippine officials appealed for urgent international aid after flash floods and mudslides last week swept away hundreds of houses, farms, roads and bridges in the country’s north-east.

Food, clean water and medicines were in short supply as most shops and health centres were destroyed. People sifted through mud to salvage clothes and belongings. The dead were buried quickly to avoid disease.

In General Nakar town, 40 miles east of Manila, the mayor asked for anti-venom drugs after a number of people were bitten by deadly cobras, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said.

Most of the destruction was wrought by a tropical storm that blew through north-eastern provinces on November 29, killing at least 530 people and leaving 607 missing. Typhoon Nanmadol struck the same region late on Thursday, leaving 38 dead and 33 missing, according to revised figures from the Office of Civil Defence.

With bulldozers still clearing piles of mud, uprooted trees, timber and debris from the roads, the only way out of three worst-hit towns in Quezon province, east of Manila, was on rescue helicopters or ferries and boats. The poorly-equipped air force could supply only about 18 aircraft, including two helicopters on lease from President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s official detachment, and the navy and the coastguard were struggling to provide vessels and fuel.

Soliman said ships were unable to reach far-flung villages because of logs washed into the sea by the storms. Instead, rubber boats ferried relief goods from ship to shore.

“People there are isolated. We don’t know the number of dead there,” she said, adding there were still villages where relief goods were air-dropped but rescuers didn’t reach.

In Real, scores of people scrambled at a pier for a place on a ferry going to Manila. The ferry has a capacity of about 100 passengers, but it was soon overwhelmed by perhaps three times as many. The captain tried in vain to turn back the throng.

Jenny Martirez, who travelled with her husband and one-year-old child, said their house in nearby Infanta town was buried under almost a metre of mud.

“There is nothing there. No food, no water. All you can see is mud everywhere,” she said, adding her only hope was to reach Manila.

Sporadic rain and low clouds grounded a Philippine air force rescue fleet for a few hours early today, said spokesman Lt. Col. Restituto Padilla said.

“Right now, helicopters are prioritising those who are seriously sick,” Soliman said.

She appealed to people to be patient as aid trickles in, and tried to allay fears that some relief supplies were being stolen.

“For people who have not eaten for three days, any effort would not be enough,” she said.

Washington offered to dispatch troops for humanitarian help and donated money and body bags. Yesterday, two HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters from a nearby US Navy ship delivered food aid and a team of experts to assess damage.

Deforestation has stripped hillsides of vegetation that could have held mud and other debris in place during last week’s storms, and many believe years of illegal logging set off the landslides.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Saturday suspended all logging and said illegal loggers would be prosecuted like terrorists, kidnappers, drug traffickers and other hardened criminals. It wasn’t clear how long the moratorium would last or whether it would be enforced nationwide.

The Philippines is hit by about 20 storms and typhoons a year. A typhoon and another storm the previous week killed at least 91 people and left 84 others missing in the east.