Rescuers struggle to aid Philippines storm victims

By Michael Pearson, CNN

 

updated 10:15 PM EST, Wed December 5, 2012

 

Source for Article : http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/05/world/asia/philippines-typhoon/index.html

 

(CNN) -- Rescue crews in the Philippines grappled with washed-out roads, downed power lines and poor communications in search of hundreds of people missing after a typhoon that killed more than 300.

More than 180,000 people were left homeless after Typhoon Bopha raked the large southern island of Mindanao with heavy rains and sustained winds of up to 175 kph (110 mph). As of Thursday morning, the storm had left 325 dead, 411 injured and 379 missing, the Philippines National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council reported.

Many of the missing were in remote highland towns. The storm wiped out the mountain village of Baculin and killed at least half of the residents of nearby Kinablangan, the official Philippines News Agency reported Wednesday. Bopha also severely damaged almost all of the homes in the villages of Boston, Cateel and Baganga, Davao Oriental Gov. Corazon Malanyaon told PNA.

"I felt like there was an earthquake because the winds and rain were so strong," said Herbert Yepis, a staff member of the humanitarian group World Vision working in Mindanao.

Watch: iReporter captures Typhoon aftermath in southern Philippines

Bopha, known in the Philippines as Pablo, continued to work its way through the island nation Wednesday, making its fourth landfall in the northwestern province of Palawan, PNA reported.

The storm had begun to move offshore by Wednesday afternoon, but continued to wash Palawan with heavy rain. It wasn't expected to fully clear the Philippines until Thursday.

It left chaos and death in its wake.

At one point, at least 319 people were missing in the Mindanao town of New Bataan alone, CNN affiliate ABS-CBN reported, citing Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas.

"Entire families may have been washed away," ABS-CBN quoted him as saying.

At least 180,000 people were living in shelters, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, the federal emergency management agency. The Philippine Red Cross put the number at 216,000.

Fresh water is scarce -- ocean water has contaminated many wells -- and sanitation and hygiene are looming problems, said Philippine Red Cross head Richard Gordon.