MANILA, 25 November 2004 - The death toll from two typhoons that hit the country within a week rose to 79 yesterday and officials warned that the number could double as 86 others were reported missing.
Several provinces in the eastern and central parts of the country reeled under the impact of the storms, which destroyed at least 11,000 houses, damaged 25,000 more, and affected more than 300,000 people.
Sixty-one of the fatalities were attributed to tropical storm Unding (Muifa'), which also left 80 mostly fishermen missing, as it cut a wide swath of destruction from the eastern region of Bicol toward the central islands of Mindoro and Romblon.
Another 18 people died and six went missing in flash floods and a landslide from storm Violeta (international name: Merbok) that dumped torrential rains over the provinces of Aurora and Nueva Ecija northeast of Manila early on Tuesday, the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) said.
But Aurora officials yesterday that the toll in Dingalan town which was hardest hit had climbed to 22.
Dingalan Mayor Jaime Ylarde said they were expecting the number of fatalities to increase, noting that more bodies under logs and debris were being recovered.
The initial list cited 15 dead in Dingalan, two in Ma. Aurora town, and one in San Luis town, Governor Bellaflor Angara-Castillo said.
More than 4,000 people have sought refuge at the municipal hall, elementary and high school buildings, and church converted into evacuation centers in Dingalan.
The only road linking Dingalan to Nueva Ecija remained blocked by rocks and soil but the Department of Public Works and Highways had begun clearing the road.
Violeta dissipated in the Cordillera mountain range overnight Tuesday, the weather bureau PAGASA said.
The typhoon toppled trees, electricity and telephone lines, and damaged crops, a report by the OCD said.
Neri Amparo, operations chief at the Office of Civil Defense, said much of the damage in Nueva Ecija and Aurora occurred when uprooted trees and illegally cut logs, washed away by the floods, smashed into homes and destroyed a major bridge that led to the worst-hit town of Dingalan, about 110 kilometers northeast of Manila.
Authorities said yesterday they were concerned about the fate of the missing people, most of whom were fishermen or tugboat operators from nearly 50 boats that were capsized or sunk by Unding.
They include 42 fishing boats off Mindoro Island and two tugboats off Romblon, four small bancas (outriggers) off the town of San Francisco southeast of Manila, and one boat off the northwestern town of Infanta.
The coast guard said it rescued 11 and retrieved one dead crewman from the tugboats, but there have been no news from those aboard the smaller vessels.
Coast guard spokesman Lt. Armando Balilo said a rescue teams were still searching yesterday for four people missing from the tugboat Tina, which capsized in the Tablas Strait between Mindoro and Romblon.
He said people have been known to survive for 10 days from shipwrecks in the tropical waters of the Philippines, "especially if they have provisions."
He was not ruling out the possibility some of the missing may have been taken aboard passing ships, although there have been no reports from these vessels.
Red Cross Appeal
Meanwhile, the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) appealed for help to provide relief assistance to tens of thousands of affected families.
Food, water, medicine, clothes and even cash were among the urgent concerns, Sen. Richard Gordon, PNRC chair, said in a media briefing yesterday at the agency's headquarters in Manila.
"Essentially, we are appealing to the general public. Red Cross resources are spread thin, with this magnitude of calamity we ask for you to help us, direct it to Red Cross, let us help our countrymen," Gordon said.
"It's better if you could give money so that, at least, the Red Cross could organize the purchase of what we need.
"But if you want to give food, medicine, rice and other useful things, they would be welcome," he said. (Additional input from Inquirer News Service & Agencies)
