ILIGAN CIT, Philippines – Ten survivors floating in the waters for at least 30 hours were rescued eight miles off the coast of Initao, Misamis Oriental, Sunday morning, a field report from the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said.
The survivors are from this city’s barangay Hinaplanon, among the hardest hit by the fury of typhoon Sendong unleashed last Saturday.
The PCG told RMN-dxIC radio that the 10 survivors have been confined at the Initao district hospital after the rescue.
The PCG field report added that several dead bodies were found in the vicinity where the survivors were picked.
The PCG deployed rescue patrols to scour the seas of the neighboring towns of Misamis Oriental towards the north as search and rescue operations to get more survivors and recover bodies continued on Sunday.
Tapping fisherfolk as volunteers, the local governments of Kauswagan and Bacolod in Lanao del Norte also deployed sea patrols to scour the waters.
Kauswagan Mayor Rommel Arnado said he organized eight patrols from his town after receiving information that some fishermen saw a throng of people still floating in the sea.
On Saturday, many of survivors rescued and dead bodies recovered were from the waters off the coasts of Lanao del Norte and Misamis Oriental towns nearby Iligan.
Iligan Mayor Lawrence Cruz said some 212 bodies have been accounted for since Saturday night while 440 remained missing.
Cruz added that in the wake of Sendong’s fury, over 5,000 families accounting for over 27,000 people have been displaced by the floods.