Philippines flash floods: "We were unprepared"

Photo courtesy of Plan International. For their updates on the catastrophe, see their Asia Twitter page.

The Philippines are preparing for the mass burial of scores of bodies after flash floods left more than 900 people dead in the southern island of Mindanao. Our Observer there says that while typhoons are common in his country, Mindanao usually escapes the worst of the damage, meaning that residents were unprepared.

The worst of the flooding affected the ports of Iligan and neighbouring Cagayan de Oro, where the Red Cross says hundreds are still missing. According to local authorities, most of the victims are “informal settlers,” a term used for slum squatters in this impoverished island.

Health officials are now taking DNA samples and photographs of unidentified victims, hoping that relatives will claim the bodies before they bury them in mass graves later this week.

Bodies stored in a makeshift morgue in Iligan. Photo posted on Twitpic by Jet B. Leyco.

“Normally, all a typhoon means here is a little rain. Nobody expected it to be any different this time”

Marc de Piolenc is a Canadian citizen who lives in Iligan, one of the cities hardest hit by the typhoon.

I have lived here with my family for 13 years, and I have never seen a typhoon come so close to the coast. Everyone says it’s very unusual. We’re used to being warned of typhoons’ arrivals – I have probably heard these warnings a hundred times – but normally, all it means is a little rain. Nobody expected it to be any different this time. We were totally unprepared.

 

We were woken up by the sound of pouring rain, and then a very strong wind. That’s when we realized something was wrong. But all of a sudden the rain stopped, and we relaxed. However just an hour later, we heard our neighbours yelling, “the water’s rising!” – and indeed, it was rising very quickly. By the time we got out the door, our street had become a proper river.

 

“Some neighbourhoods were completely devastated; others were simply wiped off the map”

 

Thankfully, our house is elevated, so the stinky, muddy water only rose up to our knees, and we were able to get our young daughters and all our valuables up to the first floor. However, for most of our neighbours, the water quickly rose to their chests.

 

We were very lucky. Some neighbourhoods were completely devastated; others were simply wiped off the map. There is now debris everywhere.

 

Usually, families bury their dead here, but right now that’s impossible, because whole families have drowned. The city has had to organise mass burials.

 

The military has sent an entire battalion of engineers. They’re the ones looking for the dead now. Every day, they find new bodies, but by now they’re very difficult to identify.”

Sifting through the wreckage after the typhoon in Dumaguete city. Video posted to YouTube by talldrox07

The typhoon's aftermath in the port city of Cagayan de Oro. Video courtesy of World Vision Philippines.