Hunger and disease to follow typhoon

Press, 30 November 1987, Page 11

Hunger and disease to follow typhoon

NZPA-Reuter Bitano, Philippines Hunger and disease are menacing a area of the Philippines ravaged by a typhoon that killed 581 people last week, a senior Government official said.

"There’s going to be a lot of hunger and a lot of illnesses because the water is polluted,” the Social Welfare Secretary, Mita Pardo de Tavera, told reporters. "There’s always a danger of all kinds of epidemic.” Typhoon Nina, the fiercest storm to strike the Philippines in three years, is playing havoc with shipping three days after it smashed into the archipelago. To the west, 35km from Hong Kong, a Danish container ship rescued 10 survivors from a vessel

believed to have sunk in mountainous seas, the British colony’s Marine Department said. Three people were reported missing but a search had to be called off because of bad weather. There was no trace of a ship reportedly on fire and adrift in heavy seas some 380 km south of Hong Kong. It had radioed a distress signal on Friday. More than 100,000 Filipinos were made homeless when Nina roared into the central Philippines on Wednesday, stirring up tidal waves that

crushed thousands of thatched roof houses in Sorsogon province. At least 500 of the fatalities were from coastal villages in Sorsogon, the worst-hit of 18 provinces declared calamity zones by President Corazon Aquino. Calamity zones are entitled to Government emergency assistance. Prices of food and essential items are kept low. People were still searching for missing relatives in the village of Bitano, where 70 people

were reported killed. Purita Ermida, a 52-year-old mother, wept as she recalled how she lost her husband, two children and a grandchild when the waves struck on Wednesday night. “As we were getting ready for bed, I noticed that water from the sea was entering the house so I hurriedly led my family to the rooftop,” Mrs Ermida said. “But our house turned over because of the strong wind and my family was nowhere to be found,” she said.

Members of her family were among the hundreds of bodies recovered on the beach the next day. "When the tidal wave hit, the villagers scampered out of their houses. Some drowned, others were pinned down among the debris,” said Delia Lato, a village official in Bitano. Another survivor, Lourdes Placides, said: “My husband and I took our two children out of the house. Our house collapsed, killing my daughter, while my son was swept away by a wave.”