The Philippine government’s geological hazard maps show why this farming community was largely washed away by a strong typhoon: “highly susceptible to flooding and landslides.” That didn’t stop some villagers from rebuilding even with bodies still lying under the mud.
NEW BATAAN, Philippines — Surrounded by steep mountains, far-flung New Bataan town has long been a tragedy waiting to happen in a valley of disasters. A government-issued geological hazard map identifies the extremely precarious location of the farming community in the southern Philippines as “highly susceptible to flooding and landslides.” Yet, like in many [...]
Stunned parents searching for missing children examined a row of mud-stained bodies covered with banana leaves while survivors dried their soaked belongings on roadsides as the death toll from the southern Philippines’ powerful typhoon climbed to about 350 people Thursday with nearly 400 missing.
The Philippine government shipped more than 400 coffins Tuesday to two flood-stricken cities in the south where the death toll neared 1,000 as President Benigno Aquino III declared a state of national calamity and relief agencies rushed to help.
