New Bataan: A Philippines typhoon “miracle survivor” was rescued Thursday after being trapped for two days under rocks and debris in flash floods that swept away his entire family and their farming hamlet.
Slathered in mud and teary-eyed, Carlos Agang recounted how a small community of banana and coconut farmers was obliterated as Typhoon Bopha unleashed a wall of water after making landfall on southern Mindanao island on Tuesday.
“It’s a miracle that I survived, but I might as well be dead,” the 54-year-old told reporters as aid workers carried him off on a stretcher with a broken leg to be airlifted to hospital.
“I was shouting for help all the time, but no one came. I don’t know what happened to (my family). Perhaps they are all dead,” said Agang, who was finally rescued by local residents early Thursday.
Rescuers were still depositing unidentified bodies at a government yard in the centre of town Thursday, near a gymnasium packed with scores of homeless typhoon victims lying on mats on the wet, muddy floor.
Most houses and buildings in the town were flattened by boulders and logs that rolled down the mountainside, and the ground was carpeted with sludge.
Shell-shocked survivors scrabbled through the rubble to find anything that could be recovered, as relatives searched for missing family members among the newly arrived body bags delivered by soldiers.
“We expect to retrieve more bodies today,” said Francisco Macalipay, a Philippine army soldier who commanded the truck delivering the bodies.
He said rescuers were struggling to reach villages amid the destroyed roads and wrecked bridges, but finding corpses was hardly a problem.
“Just let your nose lead you to them,” he said, referring to the overpowering stench of dead bodies everywhere.
Rescuers were also digging through the rubble of the town’s clinic to try and find medicines and medical equipment that could be used, but instead found another corpse.
“In a week’s time I’m sure the smell of death will force the survivors to flee the town,” Macalipay said.
The government said 325 people were confirmed dead but 379 people are still missing and 179,000 people were left homeless by the strongest typhoon to reach the Philippines this year.
