Typhoon Bopha leaves 200,000 homeless
PHILIPPINES: Over 200,000 people were homeless and 475 confirmed dead
after the Philippines' worst typhoon this year, officials said Thursday,
as the government appealed for international help.
Typhoon Bopha ploughed across Mindanao island on Tuesday, flattening
whole towns in its path as hurricane-force winds brought torrential rain
that triggered a deadly combination of floods and landslides.
Erinea Cantilla and her family of six walked barefoot for two days in
a vain search of food and shelter through a muddy wasteland near the
mountainous town of New Bataan after the deluge destroyed their house
and banana and cocoa farm.
“Everything we had is gone. The only ones left are dead people,”
Cantilla told AFP as her husband, three children and a granddaughter
reached the outskirts of the town, which itself had been nearly totally
obliterated.
The army said it was looking for at least 377 missing people while
seeking help for more than 179,000 others who sheltered in schools, gyms
and other buildings after losing everything.
Officials said many victims were poor migrants who flocked to
landslide-prone sites like New Bataan and the nearby town of Monkayo to
farm the lower slopes of mountains or work at unregulated mines in the
gold rush area.
Of the dead, 258 were found on the east coast of Mindanao while 191
were recovered in and around New Bataan and Monkayo, said.
AFP
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