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Philippines Rushes To Restore Lifelines After Deadly Mudslides
Legaspi (AFP) Dec 06, 2006 Workers raced to shift tonnes of sand and volcanic rock Wednesday to open up vital lifelines to isolated eastern Philippines hamlets days after mudslides left more than 1,200 dead and missing. Restoring roads, electricity and telephone networks to bring help to desperate survivors is now the priority after the worst-affected Bicol peninsula in the Luzon region recovered and buried its dead from supertyphoon Durian. Communist rebels operating in the region, meanwhile, said they were pitching in with the relief work by declaring a unilateral truce in the area. Soldiers otherwise vulnerable to rebel attacks make up the largest component of the rescue and relief personnel. The 7,200-member New People's Army said it would "suspend tactical offensives" to allow its armed units, as well as support groups, to conduct "rescue operations". It did not say when the ceasefire would be lifted. The strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines in living memory unleashed avalanches of volcanic debris that buried more than 700 villages around the Mayon volcano near here on Friday. The civil defense office put the typhoon toll at 543 dead and 740 missing. In the village of Santo Domingo on the outskirts of this city, machines excavated a road buried by sand and volcanic rocks the size of cars. The earthmover machines were swiftly followed by military trucks bearing relief goods and buses packed with anxious people returning to their obliterated villages. The situation is growing desperate for survivors such as grandmother Salvacion Solana, a 54-year-old storekeeper now selling rice cakes and boiled eggs at a makeshift stall beside the roof of her home jutting from the caked mud. She told AFP she had to walk several kilometers (miles) to Legaspi to buy the food she sold at a profit to construction crews. Many of her surviving neighbors were going hungry, she added. "If I did nothing we would starve to death," she said. Her husband, a chauffeur, could not go back to work because all the clothing he had left was shorts and a shirt. The civil defense office said most of Bicol still had no electricity. It said the earliest target for restoring temporary power would be Christmas eve, 18 days away. The cost of replacing the downed power pylons and lines was estimated at 795 million pesos (16 million dollars). The office said the country had received pledges and deliveries of cash, tents, blankets, generators, water tanks and medicine from governments and charities around the world. Typhoon Durian affected 1.6 million people and 1,765 villages, with some 84,000 seeking refuge at evacuation centers, mainly in the Bicol region. Durian later weakened to a tropical storm and killed at least 55 people in Vietnam, where 26 more are still missing.
Source: Agence France-Presse Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links - Water News - Science, Technology and Politics
LockMart Deswat Hydrological Forecast System Demonstrated And Ready For Operation
Bucharest, Romania (SPX) Dec 06, 2006The hydrological forecast system that Lockheed Martin is providing in partnership with the Romanian Ministry of Environment and Water Management has successfully completed its first Operational Readiness Demonstration (ORD) and is helping the country guard against the effects of severe flooding. |
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