Cagayan De Oro: More than
1,000 people remain missing in the Philippines after
devastating floods that have already left more than 1,000
others confirmed dead, the government said on Friday.
The latest toll stood at 1,079 missing, up from 51, and
1,080 dead, up from 1,010.
The big jump in the missing came as rural families
reported large numbers of relatives had gone to work in
hard-hit southern cities and remained unaccounted for, civil
defence official Ana Caneda told news agency.
"There are whole families who have gone missing or who
died. No one inquired about them before," Caneda said.
She said entire families had been wiped out in the hard-
hit southern ports of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan on Mindanao
island, and because they had no relatives left in the cities,
there was no-one to report their disappearance to the
authorities.
Nearly a week after the flash floods wrought by tropical
storm Washi, relatives from nearby provinces had descended on
the disaster zones and raised the alarm after finding their
families` homes gone, she said.
Also, survivors who were recovering from the shock or
injuries have also realised that they have missing kin, said
Caneda.
"Victims who could not find their relatives are now
inquiring about them," she added.
The government`s civil defence agency, National Disaster
Risk Reduction and Management Council, listed 674 dead in and
626 missing in Cagayan de Oro, along with 312 dead and 406
missing in Iligan.
The country`s civil defence chief Benito Ramos however
told news agency: "That (missing list) is just an estimate."
He said not even local officials could say for sure how
many people had really disappeared.
Caneda, who is based in Cagayan de Oro, conceded those
listed as missing could be among the unidentified bodies that
are piling up at local mortuaries.
"Let us focus our attention on finding the dead and
taking care of the survivors," Ramos said.
Entire neighbourhoods in Cagayan de Oro, a city of half a
million people, and nearby Iligan, a port of 100,000 people,
were swept away or were flattened by rampaging floodwaters
early Saturday.
Many of the dead were swept to sea along with their
homes.
The United Nations, which launched a USD 28.6 million aid
appeal yesterday, likened the disaster to that of a tsunami.
Bernard Kerblatt, the Manila representative of the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees, said it would airlift 42
tonnes of emergency shelters, blankets, and kitchen implements
later today to the flood areas.
PTI
