Philippine Flood death toll now over a Thousand

Philippine Flood death toll now over a Thousand

The number of deaths in the flash floods in Southern Philippines have already numbered to nearly 1,500, according to the latest account of the Office of Civil Defence in the country.

Most of the people who died are in Cagayan de Oro City, Iligan City, while others are from the nearby provinces. Most of the bodies recovered by the search and retrieval groups such as the Philippine Navy, however, are unidentified. Some are in the stages of decomposition and seen afloat in the sea, while others were carried among the logs brought about by the flash floods. Most of those retrieved initially on the surface were covered in mud, while others are still submerged in the murky waters. This situation have made already difficult the retrieval of the bodies.

Up to this day, it is not clear how many more people could be missing or have actually died in the tragedy.

Further, this also left thousands of families in the affected villages’ homeless in such that they have to be moved to the schools, and evacuation centers the local government unit have provided them.

President Benigno Aquino III have already banned logging in the area before due to incidence of past flooding, and has already ordered a thorough investigation on the matter.

Some groups, such as the communist rebels have pointed out multinational companies as the culprit for the environmental destruction which resulted to the said tragedy. One other factor that might have led to the shocking deaths is also the numerous shanties constructed along the riverbanks and other illegal structures which block the natural flow of water.

Posted by James Fried on Wednesday December 28 2011, 3:51 AM EST. Ref: Google. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0