Death Toll Hits 240 in Philippine Flooding
The town of Angono, just east of Manila, was still covered with floodwaters on Tuesday, three days after tropical storm Ketsana hit the country. More Photos >
All Maximo Merioles Jr. could think about were his two children. As the floodwaters that had swamped his neighborhood came close to submerging him, he grabbed his two kids, ages 12 and 10, and swam toward another house, clambered up to the third floor, jumped between roofs and climbed down a wall to safety across the street.
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Mr. Merioles’s heart sank Saturday as he watched not just the flood but also a raging fire eat up most of the houses in Tatalon, a slum area in Quezon City, one of the cities that make up Greater Manila.
As residents dealt with the aftermath of Tropical Storm Ketsana, the government was facing criticism on two fronts: Did it provide enough warning before the floods, and was it doing enough to help people recover?
To help with the recovery, the government on Monday appealed for international help as the death toll rose to at least 240.
The American Embassy deployed Navy personnel to help out in the rescue and relief operations and also promised $50,000 in immediate disaster aid.
“The system is overwhelmed, local government units are overwhelmed,” Anthony Golez, a spokesman of the National Disaster Coordinating Council, told reporters during a briefing on Monday. “Our assets and people are spread too thinly.”
In Tatalon, unlike the other areas that were ravaged by the storm, what the flood did not destroy, the fire did. Seven residents died in Tatalon, officials said.
Mr. Merioles and the others interviewed in his neighborhood said electrical power remained in their area even as the floodwaters rose above four feet. No one knows exactly how the fire started. “Either you die from the fire or from the flood,” said Mr. Merioles, a stocky electronics repairman.
The tropical storm arrived in the Philippines over the weekend, releasing the largest amount of rainfall in nearly half a century and flooding 80 percent of Greater Manila before moving on to Vietnam, where it has killed at least 23 people, The Associated Press reported Tuesday morning.
Nearly 2 million people in the Manila area were affected, including more than 100,000 who were displaced after the storm dumped 16.7 inches of rain in just 12 hours on Saturday.
In Pasig City, one of the hardest-hit suburbs near the heavily silted and polluted Pasig River, the floodwaters in many communities hardly decreased. “The water is not moving,” a tearful Nene Monfort, 71, told ABS-CBN television in a live interview. She said she and her family, who have been holed up on the second floor of their apartment, could not come down because of the water.
The Health Department warned Monday of a possible spread of infectious diseases, especially in the refugee centers of Manila, which number more than 200.
And as the affected residents tried to rebuild their lives, they were seeking answers as well.
Many, like Rene Anselmo, 57, a retired driver in Tatalon whose three-story house was burned down except for about 5 feet of browned concrete and singed wood, wanted to know “why there was no warning about a flood this big.”
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, the government’s weather bureau, denied in local reports that it had been negligent in warning people, saying it had issued warnings as early as Thursday, even raising storm alert levels the next day.
In an attempt to help deal with the aftermath of the storm, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo decided to open a portion of the grounds of the presidential palace to refugees. “The president has allowed the use of Malacanang itself, her own home, to be a center of relief operations,” said her press secretary, Cerge Remonde. He said the first family would be transferred to another area in the presidential compound.
The government also had declared a “state of calamity” in metropolitan Manila and 25 storm-hit provinces, including many that had not flooded before, allowing officials to use emergency funds for relief and rescue.
Mrs. Arroyo earlier announced that her government would not relent in its efforts to help those hurt by the storm.
Criticism of Mrs. Arroyo’s response could affect the presidential election, which is eight months away. The administration’s candidate is Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, who also leads the National Disaster Coordinating Council.
In the narrow streets of Tatalon, residents spent Monday taking out burned trash, dumping it on the main street outside of the slum, where mounds of black debris had been piled, practically blocking the street. Filthy floodwaters snaked beneath the rubbish.
Zoraya Tera, a 39-year-old homemaker, spent hours scrubbing her floor tiles and cleaning up her burned utensils. “Nothing is left, as you can see, but I am glad that none of my children were hurt,” she said, gesturing at what remained of her home, which had nothing in it except the burned and now rusting galvanized iron roofs.
菲律賓大洪水 全球暖化警鐘
〔編譯管淑平／綜合報導〕凱莎娜颱風為菲律賓北部帶來四十多年來最嚴重的水患，迄今已造成至少二百多人喪生，三十幾萬人無家可歸。專家指出，這場風災是一項重大警訊，若各國不以實際行動對抗全球暖化，未來還會有更嚴重的災害降臨。
九小時暴雨 超過一個月總雨量
環 保專家指出，菲律賓出現的極端氣候變化，應被視為氣候變遷和生態破壞的警訊。菲國氣象資料顯示，凱莎娜二十六日在九小時內為馬尼拉帶來約四百一十．六毫米 的降雨量，超過一個月總雨量，幾乎是二○○五年美國卡崔娜颶風的兩倍。凱莎娜並非超級颱風，但其凶猛程度讓資深氣候專家也感到訝異，其實這是近期一連串不 尋常惡劣氣候模式的延續。
菲國國家災害協調會議負責人葛雷茲和氣象局長尼洛說，近兩年來，侵襲菲律賓颱風行徑的「怪異」改變令人不解，如今 年六月颱風偏離傳統行進路線，首次橫掃呂宋島中、北部，「從科學角度檢視……我們會發現今年和去年非常怪異，我們只能假定這是氣候變遷使然。」綠色和平組 織東南亞區主任赫南德茲說，凱莎娜經驗顯示，許多國家對於如何因應全球暖化可能導致的災難毫無準備，英國慈善組織「樂施會」研究估計，未來六年全球受氣候 衝擊的人口將增加五十四％、三億七千五百萬人，以低海拔島國和窮國最為嚴重。
正在泰國曼谷召開的聯合國氣候變遷框架公約會議呼籲，菲國風災凸顯催生新氣候公約重要性。菲國環境部長阿提恩沙警告：「警鐘正在作響，這是氣候變遷」。
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