Flood in the southern Philippines kills over 900

[Mazmaz]

Really surprised there's been no mention of this, here or in the media.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2...-disaster.html

With funeral parlours overwhelmed, authorities in a flood-stricken southern Philippine city on Monday organized the first mass burial of people who were swept to their deaths in one of worst calamities to strike the region in decades.

The official death toll from Friday night's disaster, spawned by a tropical storm, rose to 927. Benito Ramos, head of the Office of Civil Defence, said additional bodies were retrieved from the ocean.

The number of missing varied widely. Official figures put the number at 82, while the Philippine Red Cross estimated 800. The disparity underscores the difficulty in accounting for people who could be buried in the mud and debris littering much of the area or could be alive but lost in crowded evacuation centres or elsewhere.

"We lost count of how many are missing," said Ramos.

In Iligan, a coastal industrial hub of 330,000 people, Mayor Lawrence Cruz said the city's half dozen funeral parlours were full to capacity and no longer accepting bodies. The first 50 or so unclaimed bodies were buried in individual tombs at the city cemetery, he said.

"For public health purposes, we're doing this. The bodies are decomposing and there is no place where we can place them, not in an enclosed building, not in a gymnasium," Cruz told The Associated Press.

He said many of the Iligan dead — 279 by official count — "are just piled and laid outside the morgues," which ran out of formaldehyde for embalming and coffins.

"We're using plastic bags, whatever is available," Cruz said.
Families of victims resist mass burials

In nearby Cagayan de Oro city, the situation was more chaotic and people were resisting mass burials, instead demanding that bodies be interned until relatives can claim them.

About 580 died in Cagayan de Oro, most of them women and children, many of whom lived along river banks. Floodwaters came gushing after 12 hours of pounding rain, catching most of them in their sleep.

Residents told local officials that plans for a mass burial was "un-Christian," said Cagayan de Oro city administrator Griscelda Joson.

More bodies continued to be found. While city officials were meeting Sunday, more than 40 bodies were seen floating off an island but the coast guard could not recover them, Joson said.

In a grim sign of desperation, a funeral parlour dumped about 30 badly decomposed bodies in a city garbage dump over the weekend, sparking protests from distraught villagers who were looking for the missing loved ones.

Ramos, the head of the agency that is spearheading the recovery and relief operations, attributed the high casualties "partly to the complacency of people because they are not in the usual path of storms" despite warnings by officials that one was approaching.

About 143,000 people were affected in 13 southern and central provinces, including 45,000 who fled to evacuation centres. About 7,000 houses were swept away, destroyed or damaged, the Office of Civil Defence said.

An estimated 35 per cent of evacuees are children, said Trevor Clark, head of UNICEF in the southern Mindanao region. Running water and hygiene were major concerns, followed by a lack of clothing, blankets and even shoes for young children, he said.

Although he said government agencies were responding in a quick and efficient manner, they were overwhelmed and the United Nations was preparing an appeal for urgent assistance.

[Silenka]

That blows. =/
How do you even think you'll get away with dumping bodies in a garbage dump? srsly

Is cremation un-Christian too? Seems like the best way to deal with bodies, especially if you don't have a lot of landmass to bury them all.

[Kuya]

Pacquiao, no!

[Valkrish]

NO! Not the Filipinos! D:

[kuronosan]

None of the news stations give a fuck because they're not a) a tourist location and b) Jewish/American.

[Hyan]

Yeah pretty fucking disgusting. It wasn't even the first news header here, the death of some czech president was deemed more important than only <1k filipinos getting killed. Obviously.

[Lucavi]

If you aren't white, you aren't right in this world. Gotta deal with it.

[Mazmaz]

If you aren't white, you aren't right in this world. Gotta deal with it.

Except when disaster hit Japan, all the weeaboo faggots here were crying. Who cares about the Philippines though amirite?

[Kuya]

Now that you mention it, that is a pretty stark contrast.

[Xno Kappa]

Simple. We can still get shemale porn from Thailand. People really want their gundams though.

[Lucavi]

Sorry, he's got a point. I gotta go with the Gundams. Heavyarms Custom, yo.

Also, that disaster was much, MUCH larger. Even Haiti got some coverage when they were going through theirs, but the difference is that it wasn't 900+ people; it was thousands+.

[Zalius]

what 900

[kuronosan]

http://images.bluegartr.com/images/icons/icon1.gif

The only reason Japan got any real press was because of their prominence as an industrious nation coupled with the fact that it was a natural disaster that caused a nuclear meltdown, making it easier for policy-makers to try and push the whole "LOL SEE NUCULAR PAWA IS BAD STAY WIT OIL LAWL" shit on people.

If it was just a tsunami and people died, it would have been 2 weeks on the news and everyone would have been singing Kumbaya.

Fucking Haiti gets a "We Are The World" fuck-up that ruined the song, but all these other countries don't get anything but rice bags they can't eat thrown at them.

It's pretty much "If you're not WASP, no one gives a fuck".

[Lucavi]

First world country = true tragedy.

Third world country = hey, is that a celebrity eating at a hot dog stand? Sounds like front-page to me!

[Tricen]

what 900

THATS LESS THAN 9000!!!!!!!!!!!!