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Mass burial for victims of storm
Source: Agencies |
December 20, 2011, Tuesday
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With funeral parlors overwhelmed, authorities in a flood-stricken southern Philippine city yesterday organized the first mass burial of some of nearly 700 people who were swept to their deaths in one of worst calamities to strike the region in decades.
The official death toll from Friday night's disaster, spawned by a tropical storm, rose to 927. The number of missing varied widely. Official figures put the missing at 82, while the Philippine Red Cross estimated 800.
The disparity underscores the difficulty in accounting for people who could be buried in the mud and debris or could be alive but lost in crowded evacuation centers or elsewhere.
"We lost count of how many are missing," said Benito Ramos, head of the government's Office of Civil Defense.
In Iligan, a coastal industrial hub of 330,000 people, Mayor Lawrence Cruz said the city's half a dozen parlors were full to capacity and no longer accepting bodies. The first burial of 50 or so unclaimed bodies was to take place yesterday in individual tombs, he said.
"For public health purposes, we're doing this. The bodies are decomposing and there is no place where we can place them," Cruz said.
He said many of the Iligan dead - 279 by official count - "are just piled and laid outside the morgues," which ran out of formaldehyde for embalming and coffins. "We're using plastic bags, whatever is available," Cruz said.
In nearby Cagayan de Oro city, the situation was more chaotic and people were resisting mass burials, instead demanding that bodies be interned until relatives can claim them.
About 340 people died there, many caught by flood waters while sleeping.
Residents told officials that a mass burial was "un-Christian," said Cagayan de Oro city administrator Griscelda Joson.
Mayor Vicente Emano called a meeting yesterday to discuss the problem.
Ramos, the head of the agency that is spearheading the recovery and relief operations, attributed the high casualties "partly to the complacency of people because they are not in the usual path of storms" despite warnings by officials.
About 143,000 people were affected in 13 southern and central provinces. About 7,000 houses were destroyed or damaged, the Office of Civil Defense said.
The United Nations is preparing an appeal for urgent assistance from donors and foreign governments.
The official death toll from Friday night's disaster, spawned by a tropical storm, rose to 927. The number of missing varied widely. Official figures put the missing at 82, while the Philippine Red Cross estimated 800.
The disparity underscores the difficulty in accounting for people who could be buried in the mud and debris or could be alive but lost in crowded evacuation centers or elsewhere.
"We lost count of how many are missing," said Benito Ramos, head of the government's Office of Civil Defense.
In Iligan, a coastal industrial hub of 330,000 people, Mayor Lawrence Cruz said the city's half a dozen parlors were full to capacity and no longer accepting bodies. The first burial of 50 or so unclaimed bodies was to take place yesterday in individual tombs, he said.
"For public health purposes, we're doing this. The bodies are decomposing and there is no place where we can place them," Cruz said.
He said many of the Iligan dead - 279 by official count - "are just piled and laid outside the morgues," which ran out of formaldehyde for embalming and coffins. "We're using plastic bags, whatever is available," Cruz said.
In nearby Cagayan de Oro city, the situation was more chaotic and people were resisting mass burials, instead demanding that bodies be interned until relatives can claim them.
About 340 people died there, many caught by flood waters while sleeping.
Residents told officials that a mass burial was "un-Christian," said Cagayan de Oro city administrator Griscelda Joson.
Mayor Vicente Emano called a meeting yesterday to discuss the problem.
Ramos, the head of the agency that is spearheading the recovery and relief operations, attributed the high casualties "partly to the complacency of people because they are not in the usual path of storms" despite warnings by officials.
About 143,000 people were affected in 13 southern and central provinces. About 7,000 houses were destroyed or damaged, the Office of Civil Defense said.
The United Nations is preparing an appeal for urgent assistance from donors and foreign governments.
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