Typhoon Bopha
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[Rescuers were digging through mud and debris Friday to retrieve more bodies strewn across a farming valley in the southern Philippines by a powerful typhoon. The death toll from the storm has surpassed 500, with more than 400 people missing.
More than 310,000 people have lost their homes since Typhoon Bopha struck Tuesday and are crowded inside evacuation centers or staying with their relatives, relying on food and emergency supplies being rushed in by government agencies and aid groups.
[I want to know how this tragedy happened and how to prevent a repeat], President Benigno Aquino III said during a visit to New Bataan town, the ground zero of the disaster, where ferocious winds and rains lashed the area.
Officials have confirmed 252 dead in Compostela Valley, including New Bataan, and 216 in nearby Davao Oriental province. Nearly 40 others died elsewhere and more than 400 are still missing, about two-thirds in New Bataan alone.
Aquino told New Bataan residents gathered in the middle of toppled coconut trees and roofless houses that he was bent on seeking answers in order to improve their conditions and minimize casualties when natural disasters occur. Fatal storms and typhoons blowing from the Pacific are common in the Philippines, but most of them hit northern and central areas, and southern Mindanao Island is usually spared.
[We are going to look at what really happened. There are allegations of illegal mining, there are allegations of the force of nature], said Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, who traveled with Aquino. [We will find out why there are homes in these geohazard locations].
The economic losses began to emerge Friday after export banana growers reported that 14,000 hectares (34,600 acres) of export banana plantations, equal to 18 percent of the total in Mindanao, were destroyed. The Philippines is the world’s third-largest banana producer and exporter, supplying well-known brands such as Dole, Chiquita and Del Monte mainly to Japan and also to South Korea, China, New Zealand and the Middle East]. – Bullit Marquez via Associated Press
More than 310,000 people have lost their homes since Typhoon Bopha struck Tuesday and are crowded inside evacuation centers or staying with their relatives, relying on food and emergency supplies being rushed in by government agencies and aid groups.
[I want to know how this tragedy happened and how to prevent a repeat], President Benigno Aquino III said during a visit to New Bataan town, the ground zero of the disaster, where ferocious winds and rains lashed the area.
Officials have confirmed 252 dead in Compostela Valley, including New Bataan, and 216 in nearby Davao Oriental province. Nearly 40 others died elsewhere and more than 400 are still missing, about two-thirds in New Bataan alone.
Aquino told New Bataan residents gathered in the middle of toppled coconut trees and roofless houses that he was bent on seeking answers in order to improve their conditions and minimize casualties when natural disasters occur. Fatal storms and typhoons blowing from the Pacific are common in the Philippines, but most of them hit northern and central areas, and southern Mindanao Island is usually spared.
[We are going to look at what really happened. There are allegations of illegal mining, there are allegations of the force of nature], said Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, who traveled with Aquino. [We will find out why there are homes in these geohazard locations].
The economic losses began to emerge Friday after export banana growers reported that 14,000 hectares (34,600 acres) of export banana plantations, equal to 18 percent of the total in Mindanao, were destroyed. The Philippines is the world’s third-largest banana producer and exporter, supplying well-known brands such as Dole, Chiquita and Del Monte mainly to Japan and also to South Korea, China, New Zealand and the Middle East]. – Bullit Marquez via Associated Press
This astronaut photo of Super Typhoon Bopha was taken on Sunday, December 2, 2012 from the International Space Station, by Astronaut Ford as the Category 4 storm bore down on the Philippines with winds of 135 mph.(Photo by NASA ISS/JSC)
Rescuers evacuate a pregnant woman with her child after surviving flooding in New Bataan town, Compostela Valley, southern Philippines. Rescuers found a six-months pregnant women from the other side of a river with her one-year-old son after escaping floods that swamped their house after Typhoon Bopha hit land on Tuesday in Compostela Valley. The death toll has risen to 332 on Thursday with hundreds missing, disaster officials said. (Photo by Erik De Castro/Reuters photo)
A rescuer covers bodies recovered from flashflood in New Bataan, Compostela Valley province, southern Philippines Wednesday, December 5, 2012. The death toll from Typhoon Bhopa climbed to more than 100 people Wednesday, while scores of others remain missing in the worst-hit areas of the southern Philippines. (Photo by Karlos Manlupig/AP Photo)
Rosalinda Pasko tearfully breaks the news to a relative of the death of her 2 of her family members at the flash flood-hit village of Andap, New Bataan township, Compostela Valley in southern Philippines Wednesday December 5, 2012. Typhoon Bopha, one of the strongest typhoons to hit the Philippines this year, barreled across the country's south on Tuesday, killing scores of people while triggering landslides, flooding and cutting off power in two entire provinces. (Photo by Bullit Marquez/AP Photo)
Children walk in front of their flooded home in the aftermath of Typhoon Bopha in New Bataan, Compostela Valley in the southern Philippines on December 5, 2012. The death toll from a typhoon that ravaged the Philippines jumped to 238 on December 5 with hundreds missing, as rescuers battled to reach areas cut off by floods and mudslides, officials said. (Photo by Karlos Manlupig/AFP Photo)
Children look at the a damaged road destroyed by flash floods at the height of Typhoon Bopha in the village of Andap, New Bataan town, Compostela Valley province, December 5, 2012. (Photo by Ted Aljibe)
A victims body is covered as relatives try to identify bodies in the aftermath of Typhoon Bopha in New Bataan, Compostela Valley in the southern Philippines. The death toll from a typhoon that ravaged the Philippines jumped to 238 on December 5, 2012 with hundreds missing, as rescuers battled to reach areas cut off by floods and mudslides, officials said. (Photo by Karlos Manlupig)
Workers clear a road with a fallen tree after Typhoon Bophal hit the city of Tagum, Davao del Norter province, on the southern island of Mindanao on December 4, 2012. Typhoon Bopha smashed into the southern Philippines early December 4, as more than 40,000 people crammed into shelters to escape the onslaught of the strongest cyclone to hit the country this year.(Photo by AFP Photo)
Residents clean their sofa next to their damaged house in New Bataan town, Compostela Valley province, a day after Typhoon Bopha hit the province. At least 274 people have been killed and hundreds remain missing in the Philippines from the deadliest typhoon to hit the country this year, the civil defense chief said December 5, 2012. (Photo by Ted Aljibe)
Residents cross a damaged road destroyed at the height of Typhoon Bopha in the village of Andap, New Bataan town, Compostela Valley province, on December 5, 2012. (Photo by Ted Aljibe)
Residents look at bodies recovered from flashflood in New Bataan, Compostela Valley province, southern Philippines on Wednesday Dec. 5, 2012. The death toll from Typhoon Bhopa climbed to more than 100 people Wednesday, while scores of others remain missing in the worst-hit areas of the southern Philippines. (Photo by Karlos Manlupig/AP Photo)
Relatives grieve as they view bodies recovered from floods in New Bataan, Compostela Valley province, southern Philippines Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012. The death toll from Typhoon Bhopa climbed to more than 100 people Wednesday, while scores of others remain missing in the worst-hit areas of the southern Philippines. (Photo by Karlos Manlupig/AP Photo)
A resident carrying a bag full of relief goods walks amongst typhoon debris as she heads for her home in New Bataan, Compostela Valley province on December 7, 2012. President Benigno Aquino vowed action on the Philippines' typhoon disasters December 7 as bruised and grieving survivors tried to recover from the latest that left nearly 500 people dead. (Photo by Ted Aljibe/AFP Photo)
Relatives cross a river to bury their loved one, who died in a flash flood caused by Typhoon Bopha in New Bataan township in the southern Philippines, December 6, 2012. (Photo by Bullit Marquez/Associated Press)
Residents line up for relief supplies at an evacuation center in New Bataan township in the southern Philippines, December 6, 2012. A powerful typhoon that washed away emergency shelters, a military camp and possibly entire families in the southern Philippines has killed hundreds of people with nearly 400 missing. (Photo by Bullit Marquez/Associated Press)
Uprooted coconut trees lie in ruin as residents and rescue workers look for survivors at a coconut plantation in the aftermath of Typhoon Bopha in Compostela Valley in the southern Philippines, December 7, 2012. (Photo by Jay Morales/AFP Photo)
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