TYPHOON PATSY 150 killed and 300 missing

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32461, 23 November 1970, Page 15

TYPHOON PATSY 150 killed and 300 missing

(NZ. Press Association —CopvriflhO MANILA, Nov. 22. The official death toll from Typhoon Patsy passed the 150 mark today, and more than 300 people are reported missing, feared dead.

The typhoon battered [j the Manila area on Thursday with winds of up to 200. miles an hour, 1 causing property dam- [ age estimated at as much as s7sm. The worst killer-typhoon to i hit the Philippines was Kate, ; which caused devastation in

southern- Mindanao last month and left 631 dead. Tens of thousands of people are in makeshift living Suarters, working to rebuild leir homes. As the Greater Manila area’s three million residents were slowly digging out today, President Marcos urged all who could leave the city for residences in the provinces to do so. Water service has been restored to much of the city, but most of it remains without electricity. Health authorities say there are scattered reports of dysentery and typhoid, but there are no signs of these reaching epidemic proportions. Reports from surrounding provinces, including the rice and sugar-rich regions of central Luzon, indicate severe damage to crops and houses. ha the west coast fishing centres, about a dozen boats an.d nearly 200 fishermen ere missing. Heavy casualties are feared, too, off the east coast, in the Polillo Island group. Early reports said that the islands, about 70 miles east of Manila, suffered severely. Provincial relief forces were sent there, but no information is yet available. The islands have a population of more than 15,000. Cheaper toys Chile’s new Marxist Government will help Santa Claus to find mere of the nation’s poor children this Christmas by reducing toy prices. The Director of Industry and Commerce (Mr Alberto Martinez) says that his department will buy toys from Chilean factories, and then find women’s organisations and other groups to sell them wholesale to families too poor to pay retail prices.—-Santi-ago, November 22.