Philippines death toll rises after grim ocean find

Updated

The death toll from a massive tropical storm in the Philippines has risen to almost 1,250 as salvage teams recover more bodies of those killed in flash flooding.

The civil defence office initially said the confirmed number of fatalities had surged by more than 200 to 1,453, before revising the figure down to 1,249 due to double-counting.

Authorities are warning the eventual number of confirmed dead could hit 2,000.

Navy and coastguard boats are still pulling bodies out of the water around the battered island of Mindanao.

Residents trying to salvage belongings from collapsed homes are also grimly recovering the bodies of their neighbours.

Last week's storm caused sudden and deadly overnight flash flooding that washed away coastal homes built on sandbars and riverbanks.

Floods have submerged towns in Leyte province in the east central Philippines and in Agusan and Surigao provinces in the south-east.

The rains were brought by a low pressure system over Mindanao which is expected to dissipate in the next two days.

But disaster officials say it could take up to six months to build housing for the 60,000 people left homeless by the floods.

Philippines Red Cross chairman Richard Gordon says they are trying to find housing that will not be swept away by future storms.

"We're still having problems in the sense that we would have to now look at the situation in terms of long-term housing," he said.

"The problem is the land. We need to have safe land. Land that will not be threatened by any earthquakes or any floods or any landslides."

Meanwhile, the health secretary and a team of doctors are visiting evacuation centres where around 5,000 people have been reported sick with colds, fever and diarrhoea due to sanitation problems.

The United Nations has called for $28 million in aid to clear debris and to provide shelter, food and water.

Topics: floods, disasters-and-accidents, storm-disaster, philippines

First posted