Frantic Dash From Flood in the Middle of the Night
European Pressphoto Agency
An aerial view of areas affected by flash floods in Cagayan de Oro on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines.
European Pressphoto Agency
An aerial view of areas affected by flash floods in Cagayan de Oro on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines.
By FLOYD WHALEY
Published: December 18, 2011
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MANILA — Just after 1 a.m. Saturday, Mary Ann Melancio became concerned about a co-worker. He had sent Ms. Melancio a text message saying that he was trapped by floodwaters in his home with his wife and 10-year-old daughter.
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Dennis M. Sabangan/European Pressphoto Agency
Evacuees lined up for food and aid at an evacuation center in Cagayan de Oro city.
“I called him, and he said in a very quiet voice: ‘The water is up to our stomachs, and we can’t get out. The current outside is strong,’ ” recalled Ms. Melancio, a 36-year-old resident of the flood-stricken city of Iligan. “After that, the phone went dead.”
When the sun rose on Sunday, Ms. Melancio and others went to the house, but her co-worker was gone. They fear he was swept away with his family.
“We walked back to our place and could see the bodies of dead people and animals along the road,” she said by telephone. “I have never seen a tragedy like this in my life.”
In neighborhoods throughout the cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro on the island of Mindanao in the southernPhilippines, similar stories could be heard: Flash floods caused by Tropical Storm Washi surged into the homes of sleeping families, and hundreds were drowned or dragged to their deaths by the currents.
The Philippine Red Cross said late Sunday that 652 people were known to have died in the flooding and estimated that more than 800 more were missing. About 35,000 people were in evacuation centers, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. Red Cross workers and volunteers counted bodies in funeral parlors to tally the death toll, according to Gwendolyn T. Pang, secretary-general of the Philippine Red Cross, and the number of missing people was based on requests to trace missing family members.
“There are areas that rescuers have not been able to penetrate,” Ms. Pang said late Sunday in a telephone interview. “We expect the number of dead to increase, but this is still a search-and-rescue effort. We are finding people alive.”
Typhoons and tropical storms are common in the Philippines, which gets about 20 major storms a year, but they do not often slam into Mindanao the way this storm did, destroying thousands of houses and washing out roads and bridges. Benito Ramos, a civil defense official, said during a news briefing in Manila that the storm had followed an unusual path, and local officials confirmed his assessment.
Though rescue workers continued to search for survivors on Sunday, many of the workers — including thousands of soldiers — were collecting the dead instead. Funeral homes in the two worst-hit cities reported that they were overwhelmed with bodies that had not yet been claimed.
In Cagayan de Oro, Nove Paulio said that rescue workers had come to her neighborhood, but that there was no one left to find.
“The houses in my place are empty or destroyed,” said Ms. Paulio, 19, who lived with her parents, sister and brothers in an area near a river that flooded. She said she was sleeping about 1:30 a.m. Saturday when she felt water touch her foot, which was hanging off the bed. She ran to wake up her mother and siblings. Within minutes, the water was up to her hips, she said; her mother held her infant sister while she picked up her two young brothers, ages 2 and 3, and carried them out of the house.
“Our kitchen table was floating,” Ms. Paulio said. “My brothers were crying and asking what was happening.”
The family made it to the roof of a nearby house, and with the help of neighbors they swam from roof to roof, until they reached higher ground.
“We are still alive,” she said, “but we lost everything.”
Published: December 18, 2011
=================================================
MANILA — Just after 1 a.m. Saturday, Mary Ann Melancio became concerned about a co-worker. He had sent Ms. Melancio a text message saying that he was trapped by floodwaters in his home with his wife and 10-year-old daughter.
Enlarge This Image
Dennis M. Sabangan/European Pressphoto Agency
Evacuees lined up for food and aid at an evacuation center in Cagayan de Oro city.
“I called him, and he said in a very quiet voice: ‘The water is up to our stomachs, and we can’t get out. The current outside is strong,’ ” recalled Ms. Melancio, a 36-year-old resident of the flood-stricken city of Iligan. “After that, the phone went dead.”
When the sun rose on Sunday, Ms. Melancio and others went to the house, but her co-worker was gone. They fear he was swept away with his family.
“We walked back to our place and could see the bodies of dead people and animals along the road,” she said by telephone. “I have never seen a tragedy like this in my life.”
In neighborhoods throughout the cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro on the island of Mindanao in the southernPhilippines, similar stories could be heard: Flash floods caused by Tropical Storm Washi surged into the homes of sleeping families, and hundreds were drowned or dragged to their deaths by the currents.
The Philippine Red Cross said late Sunday that 652 people were known to have died in the flooding and estimated that more than 800 more were missing. About 35,000 people were in evacuation centers, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. Red Cross workers and volunteers counted bodies in funeral parlors to tally the death toll, according to Gwendolyn T. Pang, secretary-general of the Philippine Red Cross, and the number of missing people was based on requests to trace missing family members.
“There are areas that rescuers have not been able to penetrate,” Ms. Pang said late Sunday in a telephone interview. “We expect the number of dead to increase, but this is still a search-and-rescue effort. We are finding people alive.”
Typhoons and tropical storms are common in the Philippines, which gets about 20 major storms a year, but they do not often slam into Mindanao the way this storm did, destroying thousands of houses and washing out roads and bridges. Benito Ramos, a civil defense official, said during a news briefing in Manila that the storm had followed an unusual path, and local officials confirmed his assessment.
Though rescue workers continued to search for survivors on Sunday, many of the workers — including thousands of soldiers — were collecting the dead instead. Funeral homes in the two worst-hit cities reported that they were overwhelmed with bodies that had not yet been claimed.
In Cagayan de Oro, Nove Paulio said that rescue workers had come to her neighborhood, but that there was no one left to find.
“The houses in my place are empty or destroyed,” said Ms. Paulio, 19, who lived with her parents, sister and brothers in an area near a river that flooded. She said she was sleeping about 1:30 a.m. Saturday when she felt water touch her foot, which was hanging off the bed. She ran to wake up her mother and siblings. Within minutes, the water was up to her hips, she said; her mother held her infant sister while she picked up her two young brothers, ages 2 and 3, and carried them out of the house.
“Our kitchen table was floating,” Ms. Paulio said. “My brothers were crying and asking what was happening.”
The family made it to the roof of a nearby house, and with the help of neighbors they swam from roof to roof, until they reached higher ground.
“We are still alive,” she said, “but we lost everything.”
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