Star Trek Brag page

Quote (akebono62 @ Oct. 01 2009, 2:21 pm)

Quote (ssmukhi @ Sep. 30 2009, 11:20 pm)

Anything more to brag about?

You tell us!

Well, considering the devastation that Manila just went through, one thing I can brag about is the human spirit. So many volunteers and rescue workers. So much kindness from strangers. Still a lot needs to be done though.

Flood crises deepens

Quote

Flood crisis deepens

Angry victims battle over food

By Jocelyn Uy, Edson C. Tandoc Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:56:00 10/01/2009

Flood victims, battling each other, swamped workers distributing food and emergency supplies as the government struggled to cope with more than half a million people dislocated by the worst flooding in decades in Metro Manila and surrounding areas.

Police Director Leopoldo Bataoil reported that trucks and private cars carrying relief goods were mobbed Wednesday morning by angry survivors and marooned residents as the vehicles made their way to Taytay and Cainta towns in Rizal province.

Bataoil appealed to the people not to disrupt the distribution.

?We understand their desire to get relief goods but we hope that they also allow us to distribute where they should be allocated,? he said in an interview at Camp Aguinaldo, general headquarters of the armed forces.

He said that military helicopters flew over still flooded villages Wednesday to find a clearing where relief goods can be dropped off closer to stranded residents who have yet to receive help.

Crowds rush chopper

In Rodriguez, Rizal, crowds rushed an army helicopter delivering boxes to a relief center Wednesday, an Associated Press photographer reported.

No one was apparently injured, and the scene returned to calm after the helicopter dropped off its goods.

Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr. appealed to private donors to coordinate with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to avoid untoward incidents.

He also announced that the military and the police would conduct regular foot patrols especially at nighttime in areas with still no electricity to prevent looting.

Tropical Storm ?Ondoy? (international codename: Ketsana) struck on Saturday, dumping more than a month?s worth of rain in just 12 hours. Flooding was worst around the Pasig River, including wealthy suburbs and shantytowns.

Death toll stood at 246 Wednesday, according to the National Disaster Coordinating Center (NDCC).

At relief centers, women and children clutching bags of belongings lined up for bottled water, boiled eggs and packets of instant noodles for a fourth day.

Their husbands waded through sludge to return to their homes to clean up the mud?sometimes two feet deep?that carpeted their houses and shops.

?More people are coming in by the hour. We don?t know how long we will be able to sustain this,? said Joe Ferrer, a local government official in charge of a shelter on a basketball court in Manila.

Some 3,000 people from the depressed San Andres neighborhood have crammed the basketball court, and there was only a single toilet for all of them.

Mud, mountains of garbage

Thick, gooey mud lay in some streets, while others were still under a foot or two of water. Mountains of garbage piled up.

In Marikina City, police used forklifts to remove mud-caked cars stalled along the road. Elsewhere, people used shovels and brooms to muck brown mud from their homes and businesses, some of them inundated up to the second floor.

?Almost 80 percent of health centers in Manila have been destroyed and in the east of the city the ground is covered by 30 centimeters (12 inches) of mud,? said Elizabeth Byrs, spokesperson for the United Nations? Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

?The priority is to distribute food and medicines for the homeless and others crowded into public buildings and churches.?

The DSWD said 503,273 people remained in 607 evacuation centers in Metro Manila and other affected areas as of Wednesday.

Rizal has 94,021 evacuees while Laguna has 113,625 evacuees. In the metropolis, Quezon City reported the highest number of evacuees at 76,460 followed by Marikina City with 57,965.

Donations pour in

Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral said that aside from the DSWD?s funds, donations from private groups sustained the department?s relief operations.

In the last four days, the DSWD has been distributing 12,500 food packs and 12,500 clothing packs daily.

Cabral said many of the evacuation centers would have to be maintained for seven to 10 more days.

Asked if resources were sufficient, Cabral said she was optimistic that private donors would continue to augment government efforts.

Enough food

During a visit to several evacuation centers Wednesday, Cabral came across 2,222 people at Bagong Silangan Elementary School in Quezon City where evacuees, compared to other centers, had a relatively better food supply.

The city government had given enough food to schedule three meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner at the school?s main stage, where rice and noodles were being cooked.

But workers asked for water jugs, clothes and mats for the families, some of whom were sleeping on a covered court just beside the caskets of relatives who were killed in the flooding.

Soap, toothpaste needed

Cabral said the NDCC would provide a P10,000 burial assistance for every fatality. Relatives will just need to present a death certificate and a certification from City Hall that it was due to the storm.

Cabral also went to Diosdado Macapagal Elementary School in Barangay Tatalon, Quezon City. Although 3,500 victims of flooding had returned to their homes, they still go to the center for food. At least 1,942 people still stay in the school after losing their homes in a fire during the storm.

Cabral appealed for more donations of food, soap, toothpaste and shampoo.

?When you have a lot of people confined in a small space not built to support this big number of people, you will have problems on sanitation and hygiene,? Cabral said.

Hospital struggles to cope

Dr. Joanna Remo and her staff could only weep as muddy waters overwhelmed Jose ?Amang? Rodriguez Medical Center in Marikina at the height of Saturday?s drenching from Ondoy.

Medical equipment and medicines were rendered useless as the hospital?s first floor was swamped on Saturday afternoon, and about 200 patients were hastily transferred to the second floor.

?But we had to fight back to restore our operations quickly because we knew that people will need us most during this time. We could not afford to shut down,? Remo said.

The medical center, which grew from a small emergency hospital in 1965 into a 200-bed facility, is the only government hospital in the area, serving the residents of seven municipalities which were among the hardest hit by the disaster.

Other hospitals unaffected by the flooding lent medical equipment and medicine.

?As of today, we?re still in the cleanup process but we are already providing outpatient and emergency services, including emergency surgery,? Remo on Tuesday said at the hospital?s crowded emergency ward as workers mopped up remaining floodwaters nearby.
Many of their patients were children brought from overcrowded evacuation centers complaining of diarrhea, raising the specter of water-borne infections. Others were treated for lacerated wounds after stepping on rusty metal or glass shards. With reports from Marlon Ramos, Agence France-Presse and Associated Pres

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