Toll From Philippine Typhoons Tops 600
The sun is out and floods in many areas ravaged by storms have receded. But as rescue workers now reach more affected areas, the death toll from the landslides and floods brought on by Typhoon Parma has now reached 264.
CBS News' Barnaby Lo reporting from Manila says that the total death toll from two deadly storms in as many weeks has topped 600, with more than 300,000 people seeking refuse in evacuation centers throughout northern Philippines.
After pulling six people from landslides late Thursday and early Friday, including a 17-year-old boy buried in his home in Baguio city, Filipino rescuers said they remained hopeful of locating more survivors in the stricken north of the country. But on Saturday they retrieved only bodies from under mud and rocks.
And the toll may rise as a huge part of the north is still inaccessible, Lo writes, with major roads and highways are still blocked by landslides, trees and debris.
Hundreds of people also remain marooned on rooftops, waiting for helicopter crews to rescue them.
And while flood water has largely subsided, it left a sea of mud.
Travel to the affected areas has not been easy, and with Manila still reeling from the aftermath of the devastating Typhoon Ketsana (which hit the capital two weeks ago), rescue and relief efforts have proven a huge challenge to the government.
Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro told local network ABS-CBN that offensives against Communist insurgents in the south are being halted as more troops are needed in the rescue and relief operations in the north.
Officials have asked U.S. troops in the country for an annual military exercise to extend relief operations. Americans trucked in supplies and marshaled helicopters and Navy ships
Troops from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, based in Okinawa, Japan, had just finished rescue and cleanup work around the Manila, which experienced the worst flooding in over four
decades after Tropical Storm Ketsana dumped record rains Sept. 26.
Then Typhoon Parma struck Oct. 3 and has lingered as a tropical depression for about a week, also over the main northern Philippine island of Luzon. It has dumped more heavy rains, triggering floods and landslides.
(Left: U.S. troops head towards affected areas to rescue trapped residents following massive flooding at Rosales township, Pangasinan province, Philippines on Friday, Oct. 9, 2009.)
Marine CH-46 helicopters have also flown over the flooded region to assess the damage and find locations for a medical mission and food distribution. Heavy equipment also will be brought in to help clear roads littered with debris, Escatell said.
About 200 U.S. Marines and sailors are on standby to help in the relief mission. They are aboard two Navy ships, USS Harpers Ferry and the USS Tortuga, off Pangasinan province, and in a Philippine military camp just south of the Cordillera mountains on Luzon.
Escatell said the U.S. troops were weary but still enthusiastic for their humanitarian mission.
"This is what we trained for," he said. "We are tired ... but it's well worth it, especially when you see the smile on the children's faces when we come to people that need medical attention or just need some kind of support."
Gov. Nestor Fongwan of Benguet told ABS-CBN television his province needed more embalmers and caskets for the large number of dead.
Mayor Artemio Galwan of La Trinidad township in Benguet province said at least 78 bodies have been recovered there. He appealed for shovels and other tools as well as portable spotlights to allow volunteers to continue digging at night.
(Left: Residents wade through floodwaters in Dagupan city, Pangasinan province, Philippines on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009.)
With large expanses of land still under water, officials say the natural disaster will have a major impact on farm production.
Galwan said the rains and landslides devastated crops in his area, regarded as the country's "salad bowl" for its vegetable farms and strawberry fields.
Rains have subsided in most areas and water was receding Saturday from low-lying provinces south of the Cordillera region, but much of the rice-growing province of Pangasinan, northwest of Manila, was still submerged. In the provincial capital of Dagupan, flood water was about waist deep.