Tropical storm Megi ravages Philippines in Holy Week

Tropical storm Megi ravages Philippines in Holy Week

Tropical storm Megi continues to ravage the Visayas and Mindanao regions of the Philippines after making landfall on April 11.

The death toll has risen to 59 while 27 are still missing, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Landslides and street flooding have forced 140,000 people to seek refuge at evacuation sites in Northern Mindanao and Eastern Samar provinces.

The Philippine army has joined the rescue efforts but is facing difficulties in the movement of its personnel. “We are racing against time to rescue those who are hit by landslides but cannot advance in some areas because the ground is still moving … it is dangerous,” Colonel Noel Vestuir told the media on April 12.

“Our rescue teams are having difficulty in locating missing persons due to the mud deposits in flooded areas. We need to act fast as many could die due to suffocation,” Gary Escaler, a member of a rescue team, told UCA News.

Escaler said they had pulled out more than 20 individuals trapped inside their homes after a mudslide in Samar province. “Had we arrived a few hours later, many of them could have died of suffocation because their houses were covered with mud,” he added.

“Our farmers are supposed to harvest rice this summer season, some time in May, but because of the typhoon, all their money and efforts were turned to ashes. This is really sad for them”

In Leyte province, several residents managed to escape or were pulled out of the mud alive, but many were still feared trapped.

Authorities announced they would shift their approach from rescue to retrieval in order to help the affected people recover their belongings.

National and local disaster agencies said storm winds of up to 65kph and gusts of up to 80kph had destroyed large tracts of rice plantations in the region.

“Our farmers are supposed to harvest rice this summer season, some time in May, but because of the typhoon, all their money and efforts were turned to ashes. This is really sad for them,” Marilyn De Guia of the agriculture department told UCA News.

De Guia, quoting a report of the Department of Agriculture, said the department estimated a total loss of US$30.6 million because of the storm.

Widespread power interruptions also hampered monitoring efforts and relief operations in the affected areas. Sources said it would take a month or two before electricity would be restored in affected regions.

Meanwhile, Caritas, the Catholic Church’s social arm, has allocated cash aid of about $6,000 for the Archdiocese of Capiz and the Diocese of Maasin in the Visayas region to help victims of the tropical storm.

“We appeal for donations for our brothers and sisters who are victims … Many of them are children whose houses and clothes were destroyed by the floods. May the spirit of the Holy Week propel us to love the needy by assisting them,” Maasin Diocese said in an appeal issued on Facebook.