filipina dilanda typhoon ketsana; update; lebey 150 maut!!

amazed

Sunday September 27, 2009

Philippines govt seeks typhoon aid, battles to avoid backlash

By Manny Mogato


MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines appealed for international aid to help tens of thousands marooned by flashfloods, and apologised for the delays in rescue efforts to avoid potential political fallout from the crisis.

A woman wades in floodwaters caused by Typhoon Ondoy in Cainta Rizal east of Manila September 27, 2009. (REUTERS/Erik de Castro)

Disaster officials said the death toll from Typhoon Ketsana that hit the main island of Luzon stood at 52 on Sunday and more than 20 others were missing feared dead.

"We're doing our best to get to all those people still trapped by the flashflood," Anthony Golez, spokesman for the National Disaster Coordinating Council, told reporters, adding soldiers in rubber boats would evacuate them to safety.

"We're sorry for the delays. We're encounting difficulty in reaching flooded areas.
Hundreds remained on rooftops, waving and shouting for food, water and warm clothes as floodwaters began to subside in and around Manila on Sunday.

Television images showed several houses and cars being swept by swollen rivers and clusters of people on the roofs of their homes. Army and civilian heliopters were seen dropping food and relief goods.

The weather bureau said Ketsana brought the heaviest rainfall in the country in 40 years. About 410 mm of rain fell in 24 hours on Saturday, twice the amount that drenched the United States during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The government has been criticised for its handling of the crisis and dozens of angry people called radio stations to appeal for help and blame state agencies for lack of preparation.

"This will have a big political impact on the government," Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform, told Reuters, adding it could further sink the popularity of the administration.

"People are wondering how the government spent its budget for flood control projects. The government was caught unprepared by the heavy rain brought by the typhoon."

FLIGHTS RESUME, SCHOOLS CLOSED


Teodoro said massive rescue and relief efforts continued for the second day as thousands were still marooned in eastern Manila, which has been submerged in 3 metre-deep floodwaters.

"We're appealing for more donations of food, water and warm clothes," Teodoro said, adding the United States and U.N. agencies had responded with boats, food, water and relief goods.

Schools will be closed on Monday because most of them are being used as temporary shelters for more than 5,000 displaced families.

Airport operations returned to normal and power supply was slowly being restored.

Typhoon Ketsana, packing winds of up to 105 kph, hit the Philippines on Saturday and was now moving towards the South China Sea.

An average of about 20 typhoons strike the Southeast Asian nation every year.







An aerial picture shows houses destroyed
by flooding brought by tropical storm Ketsana
in Marikina City, east of the Philippine capital
of Manila today. At least 51 people were killed
and more than a quarter of a million displaced
after tropical storm dumped the heaviest rainfall
on Manila in more than four decades leading to
flash floods that inundated about 80 per cent of
the capital of more than 12 million inhabitants. - AFP

amazed

Manila submerged in a sea of muddy water

2009/09/27

MANILA: Seen from a military helicopter flying above the sprawling city, Manila was today covered by a sea of brown with islands of desperate people clinging to corrugated rooftops.

One man, wearing only shorts and sandals, could be seen holding up a piece of paper appealing for help with the words “food” and “water” scrawled on it.

Elsewhere, residents who could not wait to be rescued waded through the water, carrying their children and anything else they could manage on their shoulders or heads.

Two men converted a car roof top into a makeshift raft, and were hauling themselves by rope across what was once a road but now a river.


Elsewhere, dog and chicken carcasses floated in the water as rescuers in rubber boats struggled to navigate around mountains of debris.

The devastation extended across vast areas of Manila after the heaviest rain in more than 40 years sent torrents of water up to six metres (20 feet) high streaming across the city on Saturday.

The storm, which destroyed both shanty towns and upmarket suburbs, left at least 52 people dead and more than a quarter of a million displaced, according to the government.

Banking executive Rachelle Solis was still in shock on Sunday after she and her two children, aged six and eight, were almost swept away.

Solis, 35, had taken the children to a daycare centre near the family home in a river-side northern Manila suburb. In a matter of minutes the water rose by about a metre and she decided to fetch her children.

Once there, Solis was forced to take her children across the torrent of water to reach higher ground. Their only way across was via a rope someone had set up above the waters across the road.

“We had no choice but to brave the flood. We couldn’t wait for rescuers,” Solis told AFP.

“We thought we were going to die. My children kept crying. The current was so strong and we were nearly swept away... there was debris smashing into our bodies. I kept thinking this couldn’t happen to me, not in Manila.”

Meanwhile, rescuers pushed on with efforts to reach those who remained stranded.


President Gloria Arroyo had ordered all rescue work to be completed by nightfall on Sunday, but as daylight began to fade many areas of the city remained under water and countless people were left to fend for themselves.

“I’ve never seen flooding this devastating in Manila,” Red Cross volunteer Dave Barnuevo told AFP, as he led a small team of rescuers scouring Provident, a sprawling river-side community in suburban Marikina city, east of Manila.

“The water is taking a long time to go down. The water is muddy and thick, and we have had to push our rubber boats in neck-deep waters in some areas.”

In one section of the village, rescuers retrieved a dead boy covered in mud. They placed his body alongside those of two adults waiting to be claimed by relatives. - AFP

Pygmalion

cepat MERCY....bertindak sekarang....

amazed

Tropical Storm Ketsana roared across the
northern Philippines near Manila on Saturday
and left more than 100 people killed or missing
in the worst flooding in more than four decades

kawae

Dasyatnya banjir...

amazed

Angka korban banjir di Filipina meningkat 86 orang

MANILA: Banjir besar yang melanda ibu negara Filipina sejak Sabtu lalu kini sudah meragut 86 nyawa, manakala 32 lagi dilaporkan masih hilang.

Setiausaha Pertahanan Filipina, Gilberto Teodoro, berkata angka korban mungkin lebih besar lagi selepas ribut tropika Ketsana melanda dengan membawa hujan paling lebat sejak 40 tahun lalu di Manila dan sebahagian kepulauan Luzon.

Beliau berkata, angka mangsa yang dipindahkan juga semakin meningkat kepada 435,000 orang.


Bagaimanapun, stesen radio DZBB memetik seorang pegawai tempatan sebagai berkata, lebih 58 mayat sudah ditemui di sekitar pinggir bandar Manila di Marikina. - AFP

amazed

September 28, 2009Manila hit over aid delay after storm kills 140By Rosemarie Francisco
MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine officials scampered to send relief aid on Monday to hundreds of thousands hit by weekend floods in and around Manila, while anger mounted over what was seen as an inadequate response from the government.

Residents transport their motorcycle and pedicab using a canoe in floodwaters brought on by typhoon Ketsana, locally known as Ondoy, in Sta Rosa Laguna south of Manila September 28, 2009. (REUTERS/Egay Montana/Handout/Office of the Vice-President)

As the death toll from flash floods soared to 140, analysts said the anger could damage the prospects of Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, the administration's candidate in the May 2010 presidential election.

"His 0.2 percent popularity could be zero by now," said political analyst and columnist Nelson Navarro, of Teodoro.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, already deeply unpopular in opinion polls, ordered an emergency centre be set up in the presidential palace on Monday, two days after the floods, highlighting for some the haphazard response to the disaster.

At least 450,000 people were affected, including about 150,000 displaced.

Officials said the economic damage from the worst rains on record in the Manila area was about 1.4 billion pesos ($30 million), including 500 million pesos in lost crops. Damaged roads and bridges accounted for most of the remaining costs.

Officials expected the toll to rise with people looking for missing relatives and residents trapped in flooded houses two days after Typhoon Ketsana dumped about 410 mm of rain in 24 hours, about the average amount of rainfall for an entire month.


'ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME TYPHOON'

Arroyo called the typhoon "an extreme event that has strained our response capabilities to the limit. But it is not breaking us." "It's a once-in-a-lifetime typhoon," she said in a statement. "We are continuing the rescue efforts until everyone in danger is accounted for."

While waters had receded from most flooded areas in Manila, some parts of the city of 15 million remained cut off and in others, mud and garbage was left caked on streets.

Schools were ordered closed, but financial markets were open on Monday and public transport was operating. Offices and businesses were open, but attendance was poor.

"There was a massive failure in government and the direction of management response," said Mario Taguiwalo, president of the National Institute for Policy Studies think-tank.

"The root cause is you have a government whose predominant preoccupation is with graft and corruption -- how to steal more money from the people," Taguiwalo said.

"If your officials are not motivated to serve and just motivated to steal, then that's the kind of response you get."

Arroyo has been accused of vote fraud and corruption in her nine years in power. She has consistently denied the charges.
The government was using helicopters to drop food packets.

Television reports said private citizens and volunteer groups were collecting relief goods -- mostly clothes, drinking water and medicines -- and distributing them to victims.

amazed

Filipina minta bantuan dunia

RATUSAN penduduk meredah air banjir di Pekan Pasig dekat Manila semalam.

MANILA – Pihak berkuasa Filipina merayu masyarakat antarabangsa agar menghulurkan bantuan ketika angka kematian akibat banjir besar yang melanda utara negara berkenaan melonjak kepada 140 orang.

Selain angka kematian yang besar, situasi di negara itu bertambah buruk selepas ramai mangsa yang terselamat pula terpaksa tinggal di tempat-tempat perlindungan dalam keadaan serba kekurangan.

Dua hari selepas hujan ribut menyebabkan bandar raya Manila dan beberapa wilayah sekitarnya dilimpahi air bah, kerajaan Filipina akhirnya akur bahawa ia tidak mampu menangani bencana itu bersendirian dan memerlukan bantuan segera.

“Kami merayu bantuan kemanusiaan. Situasi di Filipina berpotensi menjadi dahsyat dan kami tidak boleh berpeluk tubuh dengan menunggu ia berlaku,” kata Setiausaha Pertahanan, Gilberto dalam satu ucapan televisyen semalam.


GAMBAR menunjukkan mangsa- mangsa banjir berbaris untuk
mendapatkan bantuan daripada askar-askar di Cainta Rizal, timur Manila semalam.

Beliau membuat rayuan itu ketika mengumumkan angka kematian tersebut dengan 32 yang lain dikhuatiri masih hilang manakala 453,000 orang terpaksa berpindah selepas rumah mereka musnah ditenggelami air banjir.

Namun, angka kematian dijangka terus melonjak ketika pihak berkuasa tempatan melaporkan berpuluh-puluh lagi kematian yang belum disertakan dengan perangkaan rasmi kerajaan.

Presiden Gloria Arroyo dalam satu ucapan di sini menyifatkan hujan ribut yang melanda itu sebagai `sekali seumur hidup’.
Ia menyebabkan banjir terburuk pernah melanda Manila sejak empat dekad lalu apabila 80 peratus bandar raya itu ditenggelami air.


DUA orang mencari barang berharga selepas banjir semakin
surut di Bandar Marikina dekat Manila semalam.

Sementara itu, berpuluh-puluh ribu orang mengalami kekurangan makanan, air dan pakaian ketika berlindung di sekolah, gimnasium dan sejumlah tempat perlindungan lain.

Sebuah gimnasium di timur Manila penuh sesak apabila menempatkan 3,000 orang tanpa air bersih manakala najis manusia pula bertaburan di lantai simen hanya beberapa meter dari tempat tidur mereka.

“Kami masih menanti ketibaan lebih banyak bantuan. Kami sedang berusaha melancarkan operasi bantuan di sini (Manila) tetapi kami memerlukan lebih banyak bantuan,” kata seorang pemimpin tempatan, Armando Endaya.

Pihak berkuasa tempatan turut memberi amaran bencana yang menimpa bakal mencetuskan pelbagai wabak penyakit seperti selesema babi, taun dan jangkitan bakteria.
– AFP.

amazed

Lebih banyak mayat ditemui

NAIB Presiden Filipina, Noli de Castro (kiri) semalam, menyapa penduduk di pekan Sta Rosa yang terjejas akibat banjir besar selepas ribut Ketsana melanda di wilayah Laguna di selatan Manila, Filipina. - REUTERS

MANILA 28 Sept. - Pasukan pencari dan penyelamat membawa naik lebih banyak mayat dari sungai-sungai yang dinaiki air sementara ribuan penduduk tidak mempunyai air minuman, makanan dan bekalan elektrik ketika angka kematian dalam bencana banjir terburuk di utara Filipina sejak lebih empat dekad lalu ini melonjak kepada 140 orang.

Pegawai menjangkakan angka tersebut akan meningkat ketika anggota penyelamat menyusuri kawasan perkampungan yang sukar dilalui disebabkan kereta dan serpihan-serpihan terapung sejak ribut tropika Ketsana melanda semalam, menyebabkan 32 orang hilang.

Pihak berkuasa sedang cuba mengesahkan kematian termasuk di beberapa bandar metropolitan Manila dan wilayah Rizal yang terletak berdekatan di mana seramai 99 orang dilaporkan terbunuh, kata Setiausaha Pertahanan, Gilbert Teodoro.

Ketika puluhan ribu penduduk memulakan kerja-kerja pembersihan dan ribut tropika tersebut meninggalkan Filipina, kerosakan yang dibawa bencana alam itu semakin jelas kelihatan dengan kawasan bersalut lumpur, jalan raya yang dipenuhi dengan kereta yang dihanyutkan air dan sejumlah besar penduduk kampung yang keputusan bekalan air bersih, makanan dan kuasa.

Kerajaan telah mengisytiharkan 'keadaan bencana' di Manila dan 25 wilayah yang dilanda ribut, termasuk kebanyakan daripadanya yang tidak dilanda banjir sebelum ini, membenarkan pegawai menggunakan dana kecemasan untuk bantuan dan menyelamat.

Teodoro berkata, lebih 450,000 orang terjejas akibat ribut ini, termasuk 115,000 penduduk yang ditempatkan di 200 buah sekolah, gereja dan beberapa pusat perlindungan lain. Askar, polis dan sukarelawan telah berjaya menyelamatkan 7,900 orang setakat ini.

Katanya, pegawai kebajikan kerajaan telah memulakan usaha membekalkan makanan, perubatan dan keperluan lain kepada mereka yang dipindahkan ke pusat perlindungan.

Presiden Gloria Macapagal Arroyo menyifatkan ribut dan banjir yang berlaku itu sebagai 'keadaan ekstrem yang menjejaskan keupayaan bertindak balas namun tidak memusnahkan Filipina'.

Walaupun Arroyo tidak meminta bantuan antarabangsa, jurucakap kerajaan, Anthony Golez menyatakan Filipina mengalu-alukan sebarang bentuk bantuan.

Ketsana sedang menuju ke arah Vietnam hari ini dan berada pada kedudukan 600 kilometer dari barat kawasan utara Filipina.
Pegawai jabatan kaji cuaca, Nathaniel Cruz berkata, Filipina juga mungkin berisiko dilanda satu lagi taufan dengan tekanan tropika dan kawasan bertekanan rendah di Lautan Pasifik menuju ke arahnya. - AP/AFP

alphawolf

Labuan pun terkena tempias dia sket....

amazed

10# alphawolf


labuan dekat sangat... tu kena tempias  hah......  harap tak ada ler teruk sgt kerugian kat sana.... atau nyawa melayang.....

kat filipina ni pun dah  sedey baca......

alphawolf

Kat news pagi tadi kata angin kuat dan beberapa kawasan terputus bekalan letrik tu jaer....

amazed

Tuesday September 29, 2009

Typhoon kills 32 in Vietnam; Philippine toll at 246

By Ho Binh Minh and Raju Gopalakrishnan

HANOI/MANILA (Reuters) - A powerful typhoon slammed into central Vietnam on Tuesday, killing 32 people and flooding towns and villages along the country's long coastline after leaving a trail of destruction in the Philippines.



Residents walk through
mud caused by Typhoon
Ketsana, locally known as
Ondoy, in Montalban Rizal,
west of Manila September 29, 2009.
(REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco)

The death toll in the Philippines from Typhoon Ketsana rose to 246 while the economic cost was nearly $100 million, officials said. Philippine authorities braced for another storm that could hit later this week.

Truong Ngoc Nhi, deputy chairman of the People's Committee in Vietnam's Quang Ngai province, said on state-run television the typhoon was the worst in more than three decades.

The official said workers were trying to restore electricity to the Dung Quat oil refinery, which had been due to get back on line on Wednesday after an outage shut the plant last month.

The refinery had been on track to resume operations at 65 percent capacity on Wednesday, officials had said, before reaching full capacity of 140,000 barrels per day next month. It first became operational in February.

Many areas of central Vietnam were inundated, including parts of the port city of Danang, state-run Vietnam Television (VTV) footage showed. Homes were damaged and phone lines were down.

At least 32 people were killed in seven coastal and central highland provinces, VTV said. Around 170,000 people were evacuated before the typhoon made landfall. Ketsana hit the Philippines at the weekend.

National carrier Vietnam Airlines cancelled all fights to Danang and schools in the affected area were closed. The airline said it would resume service on Wednesday.

The central Vietnam region hit by Ketsana lies far north of the country's Mekong Delta rice basket. Rain dumped on the Central Highlands coffee belt could delay the start of the next coffee harvest by up to 10 days but exports would not affected, traders said.

NEW PHILIPPINE STORM

Meanwhile, forecasters said a new storm forming in the Pacific Ocean was likely to enter Philippine waters on Thursday and make landfall later on the northern island of Luzon.

Ketsana dumped more than a month's worth of average rainfall on Manila and surrounding areas in one 24-hour period. About 80 percent of the city of 15 million was flooded.

The Philippine government has come in for scathing criticism for its response, with many calling it inadequate and delayed.

Authorities estimated damage from the storm so far at around 4.69 billion pesos ($98.5 million). More than 1.9 million people were affected and 375,000 had abandoned their homes and taken refuge in evacuation centres.

The Philippine death toll could rise further once reports come in from remote areas, disaster officials said.

"For casualties, the increase will be not as great, but the damage figures may increase," Defence Secretary Gilbert Teodoro told a news conference.

Several foreign governments and U.N. agencies have pledged nearly $2 million in rice and relief supplies, Teodoro told reporters, adding he met lawmakers from both houses of Congress to seek emergency funds for rehabilitation work.

The typhoon destroyed more than 180,000 tonnes of Philippine paddy rice, or nearly 3 percent of projected fourth-quarter output, but was unlikely to prompt more imports, a senior government official said.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has called the typhoon "an extreme event that has strained our response capabilities to the limit".

Analysts say the floods have worsened the reputation of Arroyo, who has been accused of corruption and poll fraud, and that it could affect the prospects of Teodoro, the administration candidate, in the May 2010 presidential election.

amazed

Wednesday September 30, 2009
Typhoon Ketsana wreaks havoc across South-East Asia

See also: Scores dead in tsunami in Pacific islands

MANILA: One of the most destructive storms in years extended its deadly path across South-East Asia, blowing down wooden villages in Cambodia and crushing Vietnamese houses under mudslides after submerging much of the Philippines capital.

The death toll Wednesday was 298 and rising.

“We’re used to storms that sweep away one or two houses. But I’ve never seen a storm this strong,” said Nam Tum, governor of Cambodia’s Kampong Thom province.

The immediate threat was easing as Typhoon Ketsana was downgraded to a tropical depression as it crossed Wednesday into a fourth nation, Laos. But its powerful winds and pummeling rain left a snaking trail of destruction.

Landslides triggered by the storm slammed into houses in central Vietnam on Tuesday, burying at least seven people including five members of the same family, the government said. They were among 41 people killed in the country, some by falling trees, with 10 missing.

The storm destroyed or damaged nearly 170,000 homes and flattened crops across six central Vietnamese provinces, officials said. More than 350,000 people were evacuated from the typhoon’s path, posing a logistical headache to shelter and feed them.

Parts of one hard-hit province, Quang Nam, were still isolated by floodwaters and its main highway remained partially submerged, provincial disaster official Nguyen Hoai Phuong said.

In neighbouring Cambodia, at least 11 people were killed and 29 injured Tuesday evening as the storm toppled dozens of rickety houses in Kampong Thom province, about 130km north of the capital, Phnom Penh.

Five members of the same family died when the storm toppled their home as they ate dinner, said Neth Sophana of the Red Cross. Others were swept away by floodwaters. Neth Sophana said about 90 homes were destroyed.

Authorities were searching for more victims and rushing food, medical supplies and plastic sheeting for temporary tents to storm-hit areas.

Light rain was falling over some parts of the disaster zone Wednesday, and most rivers had peaked Wednesday morning and were starting to slowly recede, Vietnam’s National Weather Forecast Center said.

But the cleanup task was enormous.

In the Philippines, Ketsana on Saturday triggered the worst flooding in 40 years across a swath of the island nation’s north and submerged riverside districts of the sprawling capital of 12 million people.

Some 2.3 million people had their homes swamped, officials said Wednesday. The Philippines death toll stood at 246, with 42 people missing.

Almost 400,000 people are seeking shelter in relief centers, including one set up in the presidential palace.

Another tropical storm was headed toward the southern Philippines and could hit on Wednesday afternoon, government forecaster Malou Rivera said. Officials fear more heavy rain could flood already hard-hit areas and complicate cleanup efforts.

At relief centres Wednesday, women and children clutching bags of belongings lined up for bottled water, boiled eggs and packets of instant noodles for a fourth day.

Their husbands waded through sludge to return to their homes to clean up the mud -- sometimes half a metre deep -- that carpeted their houses and shops.

Thick, gooey mud lay in some streets, while others were still under half a metre of water. But the main downtown business and tourist district was largely unscathed.

In Marikina, a suburban district of the capital, police used forklifts to remove mud-caked cars stalled along the road. Elsewhere, people used shovels and brooms to muck brown mud from their homes and businesses, some of them inundated up to the second floor.

The government has declared a “state of calamity” in Manila and 25 storm-hit provinces and estimated the damage at US$100mil. It concedes its ability to cope with the disaster is stretched to the limit and has appealed for foreign aid, and accepted pledges from the United States, Australia, Japan and other nations. -- AP

amazed

PELANCONG diselamatkan dengan menggunakan
bot untuk dihantar ke tempat selamat berikutan
ribut tropika Ketsana di bandar pelancongan
Hoi An di tengah-tengah Vietnam wilayah Quang Nam. - Foto AFP