Manila seeks aid after deadly storm

Terrified survivors were yesterday fleeing the northeastern Philippines as a new storm bore down on the area where floods and landslides have killed more than 400 people and left nearly 200 missing.

Typhoon Nanmadol is expected to slam into the east coast of the main island of Luzon tomorrow morning. Entire villages were swept away by a storm earlier this week and three towns were cut off and suffered heavy damage.

The new typhoon is packing winds of 175 km per hour over the Pacific Ocean and is already bringing driving rain and strong winds to the devastated region, the government weather centre said.

The worst-hit coastal towns of Real, Infanta and General Nakar suffered 364 dead and 139 missing, said the civil defence office in Manila. At least 48 people were killed and 38 missing elsewhere on Luzon.

The government plans to ask the United States to provide search and rescue and engineering equipment, said Vice Admiral Ariston de los Reyes, military vice chief of staff.

Four UN agencies have meanwhile pledged about $200,000 (Dh734,000) in assistance, the defence department said.

In Real, the streets were strewn with logs and boulders. Some survivors queued up to board military trucks to carry them to safety while others fled on foot in small groups through the winding paths of the Sierra Madre mountains.

Rescuers stepped up efforts to excavate a three-storey building that collapsed at the height of storm in the hope of finding survivors as 100 people remain trapped beneath the rubble in Real.

Defence Undersecretary Ernesto Carolina, in a press briefing at Camp Emilio Aguinaldo in suburban Quezon City, said that so far, 25 bodies have been retrieved by rescuers at the collapsed building alone.

"People went there to use the building as an evacuation centre but it collapsed. They are trapped there. Local officials have presumed they are dead," Carolina said.

Storm Winnie was caused by strong winds and massive landslides that affected the provinces of Quezon, Aurora, Nueva Ecija Camarines Sur and Rizal on Sunday.

Department of Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon Soliman said that rescue efforts are being hampered by debris scattered in major thoroughfares, poor visibility and heavy flooding in the area.

Philippine officials said they have sought the help of Japan, the United States and Australia to lend assistance in the form of food and medicine supplies as well as airlift transportation.

Defence Secretary Avelino Cruz Jr. told reporters that through military officials and foreign attaches, the government requested for rescue helicopters, food, and medicine.

"We are stretching our resources at present," said Cruz, concurrent chairman of the National Disaster Coordinating Council.

"We need a massive supply of relief goods," he said.

He said he received the pledges for help from representatives of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), UN Food and Drug Organisation and Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha).

"I would like to thank these organisations for coming to the aid of the victims of the typhoons," Cruz said.

Officials at the weather forecasting centre have said that they need modern rain gauge radars to enable them to give accurate predictions on the amount of rainfall over a 20-km radius.

Dr. Prisco Nilo, officer-in-charge of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services, said the recent heavy damage caused by Winnie underscored the need for the agency to acquire cutting-edge technologies so they give protection to the people through a higher accuracy of forecasting rainfall and other weather-related matters.