Manila ask for help as storm death toll rises

The Philippine government has appealed for urgent aid for the damage from the Saturday's tropical storm which lashed the Philippines.

"We are concentrating on massive relief operations, but the system is overwhelmed, local government units are overwhelmed," Anthony Golez, the deputy administrator of the National Disaster Co-ordinating Council (NDCC), told reporters on Monday.

The floods have been described as the worst flooding in the northern Philippines in more than four decades.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council announced Monday that at least 100 people have been reported dead and 32 others missing as a result of the storm, which inundated the densely-populated capital, Manila, displacing nearly half a million.

The government declared a "state of emergency" in Manila and 25 storm-hit provinces, allowing officials to use emergency funds for relief and rescue.

Military forces, along with the police and civilian volunteers plucked dead bodies from muddy flood waters and rescued drenched survivors from rooftops.

More than 451,000 people were affected by the storm, including some 115,000 people who were brought to 200 different schools, churches and other evacuation shelters, officials said.

Troops, police and volunteers have so far been able to rescue more than 7,900 people, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said on Monday.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=107314§ionid=351020406.