Bopha: 600 Dead, 600 Still Missing

[DeSwiss]

Source: The Independent (AP)

Sunday 09 December 2012



New Bataan, Philippines - Search and rescue operations following a typhoon that killed nearly 600 people in the southern Philippines have been hampered because many residents of this ravaged farming community are too stunned to help.

With an estimated 600 people still missing after Typhoon Bopha struck on Tuesday, soldiers, police and volunteers from outside New Bataan have formed the bulk of the teams searching for bodies or signs of life under tons of fallen trees and boulders that were swept down from steep hills surrounding the town.

A municipal spokesman, Marlon Esperanza, said: "We are having a hard time finding guides. Entire families were killed and the survivors are in shock. They appear dazed. They can't move." He said the rocks, mud, tree trunks and other rubble that litter the town have destroyed landmarks, making it doubly difficult to search places where houses once stood.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/bopha-600-dead-600-still-missing-8395859.html

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- A former banana plantation near New Baatan:

http://www.redcross.org.ph/

[Diyames]

1. Thanks for the update

...and the amazing video. I've spent a lot of time in the Philippines and have friends and loved ones in the Visayas. I'm hoping damage in the Cebu provinces was not too bad. I'm waiting for reports from them this weekend. The damage to the banana farms is tragic. Filipinos are some of the most wonderful people I've ever met and the poverty that many struggle with is made so much worse when their homes and lively hoods are decimated like this. Not to mention the horrible loss of life.

I've been trying to develop plans for some kind of charitable effort to help alleviate some poverty issues in the provinces. I wish I had something already in operation.

[DeSwiss]

4. De nada.

- And they've had one huge storm after another dealt their way just this year......

[Diyames]

13. It reminds me

...that a few years ago there was a massive mudslide in Southern Leyte that buried hundreds of people and despite recovery efforts, they decided to treat the area as a mass grave because the mud was so deep. So much rain saturates the soil in the hills and at some point it just slides away. The people below are helpless.

It just encourages to get my website up and running as soon as I can.

And now Manny Paquiao has been knocked out cold in the 6th round. I was hoping at least he could give some encouragement to his people there. The whole country takes pride in him and everyone stops everything to watch his fights.

[DeSwiss]

15. Manny never had a chance.....

- I think Mittens has found his calling: Professional Jinx. The Vegas odds-makers will love him even if no one else but Ann does......

LAS VEGAS -- Defeated presidential candidate Mitt Romney was a guest ringside Saturday night at the fourth fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez. Romney also visited with Pacquiao in his dressing room before the fight, wishing him well in the bout.

"Hello Manny. I ran for president. I lost," Romney told the fighter, according to Pacquiao publicist Fred Sternburg.

Pacquiao is a congressman in the Philippines, and has said previously he might run one day for the president of his country. link

[babylonsister]

2. My heart breaks; I had heard about the dead, but not about

the missing. So sad.

[DeSwiss]

5. Mine too. n/t

[alfredo]

3. That was a huge storm. I hope help will come soon.

[DeSwiss]

6. Me too....

...but it's not quite over either:



http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/wp201226.html

[alfredo]

7. Is there a chance it will revisit the island?

[Warpy]

8. No, it fell apart over open water and scooted off to the northeast

so there's something to be thankful for.

I'd read that eye wall winds were 200 mph when it slammed into shore. That doesn't leave much standing, no matter how well built it was.

[alfredo]

17. 150 is enough to do the worst, 200mph is just digging your heal in their face.

[DeSwiss]

10. Bopha raked across.....

...the southern Phillipines and after heading out to sea is now slowly tracking back in the general direction of the northern tip of the Philippines as a tropical depression. Although the storm's center now seems to be holding steady:



Latest updated storm link- Wunderground.com.

[alfredo]

18. When are we going to see even stronger events? The shit is hitting the fan, and

I fear it will happen faster than we can adapt.


BTW, we have spring flowers blooming.

[glinda]

9. Behold the future.

Very sad. Human leaders and their buddies are also very sad in a different way.

[DeSwiss]

11. True.

[center]Raise your glass to the hard working people
Let's drink to the uncounted heads
Let's think of the wavering millions
Who need leaders but get gamblers instead
-- "Salt of the Earth," The Rolling Stones
[/center]

[Quantess]

12. Ouch.

Thank you for posting all the photos.

[4bucksagallon]

14. We are located on the Gulf of Davao, about 70 to 80 miles from where Pablo came ashore.

Mindanao has a reputation of being typhoon free, so many people don't pay attention to the weather here.The night of the storm the inds were something to behold and lucky for us the tides were running low. From here, in Pantukan there was some damage but north up through Tagum City, Compostella Valley and Agusan, New Bataan, and Bukidnon I heard were the hardest hit. We have been dealing with power outages and just got our power back today. Five days after the storm.
I started watching this storm develop last week and it was south of our location about 3 degrees off the equator, we are located at 7 degrees. At that time I said this storm needs watching and it was not until early Sunday that PAGASA started putting up signals and the storm hit on Monday . But by then it was too late for many people, news travels slowly here in the islands. If PAGASA had started late last week putting up warnings I believe it would have been different at least for some people. They did not even have time to get the fish out of the fish cages in the Gulf here and many thousands were destroyed. We now are dealing with the storm aftermath and from the flash floods. There are large mats of vegetation out in the Gulf, from the flash floods, and it is like a very large toilet bowl, every tides sees the mats of vegetation growing in size and scope. Eventually we will get a good enough tide to sweep all the debris out of here but until then it just keeps swirling around the Gulf. Oh well enough of that at least the worst is over, and hopefully Luzon will be spared too much damage.

[triplepoint]

16. And Another Nation of Climate Refugees is Created

Where have all the people gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the people gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the people gone
Climate refugees everyone
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?
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