TYPHOON BOPHA

 

Last week, the southern Philippines was struck by Typhoon Bopha, the strongest tropical cyclone to ever hit the island of Mindanao. Bopha made landfall as a Category 5 super typhoon with winds of 160 mph (260 km/h), flattening coastal villages, wiping out banana plantations, and causing mudslides and flooding. At the moment, the number of deaths has reached nearly 650, the number of missing is still near 800, and another 400,000 have been displaced by the storm. Collected here are images from the affected islands, as rescue and recovery workers continue to search through debris in fields choked with trees, boulders, and mud. Philippine death toll from Typhoon Bopha rises: 475 dead Posted on December 5, 2012 December 6, 2012 – Philippines - Nearly 200,000 people were homeless and 475 confirmed dead after the Philippines’ worst typhoon this year, officials said Thursday, as the government appealed for international help. Typhoon Bopha ploughed across Mindanao island on Tuesday, flattening whole towns in its path as hurricane-force winds brought torrential rain that triggered a deadly combination of floods and landslides. Erinea Cantilla and her family of six walked barefoot for two days in a vain search of food and shelter through a muddy wasteland near the mountainous town of New Bataan after the deluge destroyed their house and banana and cocoa farm. “Everything we had is gone. The only ones left are dead people,” Cantilla told as her husband, three children and a granddaughter reached the outskirts of the town, which itself had been nearly totally obliterated. The army said it was looking for at least 377 missing people while seeking help for more than 179,000 others who sheltered in schools, gyms and other buildings after losing everything. Officials said many victims were poor migrants who flocked to landslide-prone sites like New Bataan and the nearby town of Monkayo to farm the lower slopes of mountains or work at unregulated mines in the gold rush area. Of the dead, 258 were found on the east coast of Mindanao while 191 were recovered in and around New Bataan and Monkayo, said Major-General Ariel Bernardo, head of an army division involved in the search. The civil defense office in Manila said 17 people were killed elsewhere in Mindanao along with nine in the central Visayan Islands. “We still have more than 377 missing and our challenge now is really to try to get to them,” he told. Shell-shocked survivors scrabbled through the rubble of their homes to find anything that could be recovered, as relatives searched for missing family members among mud-caked bodies laid out in rows on tarpaulins. Civil defense chief Benito Ramos refused to give up hope for the missing

TYPHOON BOPHA Deadly Typhoon Bopha makes U-turn back to Philippines Posted on December 9, 2012 December 9, 2012 – MANILA – Heavy rain brought flooding fears in the north of the storm-battered Philippines as Typhoon Bopha returned today, days after slamming into the south of the country and leaving almost 1,400 dead or missing. While the powerful typhoon had weakened to a tropical storm, it was still causing downpours in the north even as hundreds in the south struggled to recover from its fury, said civil defense chief Benito Ramos. “It will bring rain, not so much wind. We anticipate flash floods and landslides. We expect low-lying areas to be flooded again,” Ramos told AFP. Local relief and rescue teams along with the military were in position while residents were on alert for rising waters. Officials said 548 people are confirmed dead after Bopha struck last week.  The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said 827 are missing, a sharp rise on earlier estimates of about 500 unaccounted for. Most deaths were in Mindanao where mountainous gold-rush sites were hit hard. Almost 178,000 people were still in crowded evacuation centers. Ramos said the massive death toll in Mindanao had made residents in the north more cautious. “They are more alert now. They were watching developments in the south where we incurred a substantial number of casualties and they were alarmed,” he said. Despite Bopha’s weakening, the second-level of a three-step storm alert was raised over three northern provinces. Lower alerts were hoisted over surrounding areas, the government weather station said. Bopha struck the southern Philippines last week, wiping whole towns off the map with its 210km per hour winds and heavy rains. The strongest typhoon to hit the country this year cut through the central islands and was heading out to the South China Sea when it made a U-turn towards the north this weekend. Early Sunday Bopha was just off the northern city of Laoag, packing gusts of 120km per hour as it moved east at 15km per hour, the station said. –Sun Daily

 

A typhoon victim holds a bag of relief goods as she walks among debris swept by floodwaters at the height of Typhoon Bopha, while returning to an evacuation center in New Bataan town in Compostela Valley, southern Philippines, on December 7, 2012. Residents in the southern Philippines buried their dead over the weekend, even as rescue workers continued scouring remote areas for survivors of Typhoon Bopha, the nation's strongest storm this year, which killed nearly 650 people and left nearly 800 missing. (Reuters/Erik De Castro)   2 Thousands of typhoon-toppled banana trees on a plantation in New Bataan, Compostela Valley province, on December 7, 2012. President Benigno Aquino vowed action on the Philippines' typhoon disasters as bruised and grieving survivors tried to recover.(Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Images) # 3 This photo made from the International Space Station on December 2, 2012, shows Typhoon Bopha moving toward the Philippines.(AP Photo/NASA) # 4 Residents cross a damaged road destroyed at the height of Typhoon Bopha in the village of Andap, New Bataan town, on December 5, 2012. (Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Images) # 5 Damaged houses, among toppled trees in the aftermath of Typhoon Bopha in Compostela Valley, southern Philippines, on December 7, 2012. (Reuters/Jay Morales/Malacanang Photo Bureau) # 6 Damaged houses among toppled trees and landslide areas in the aftermath of Typhoon Bopha in Compostela Valley, southern Philippines, on December 7, 2012. (Reuters/Jay Morales/Malacanang Photo Bureau) # 7 Coconut trees knocked down by Typhoon Bopha in the coastal town of Boston, Davao Oriental in southern Philippines, on December 10, 2012. (Reuters/Erik De Castro) # 8 A rare cloud formation above a destroyed banana plantation, four days after typhoon Bopha left hundreds of people dead and rendered extensive damage to agriculture at Montevista township, Compostela Valley, on December 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) # 9 A resident crosses a surging river on a zip line in the town of New Bataan, Compostela province, on December 6, 2012.(Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Images) # 10 A rescue worker carries the child of Lenlen Medrino across a surging river in the town of New Bataan, Compostela province on December 6, 2012. (Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Images) # 11 Residents rest on tree trunks toppled by Typhoon Bopha in the coastal town of Boston, Davao Oriental in southern Philippines, on December 10, 2012. (Reuters/Erik De Castro) # 12 Typhoon victims stand outside their destroyed house and toppled banana trees, in New Bataan town in Compostela Valley, on December 7, 2012. (Reuters/Erik De Castro) # 13 An aerial view of damaged houses caused by flash floods in Compostela Valley province, on December 6, 2012.(Reuters/Philippine Army 10th Infantry Division) # 14 People stand atop debris made up mostly of toppled trees and crops in the aftermath of Typhoon Bopha in the southern Philippines, on December 7, 2012. (Reuters/Jay Morales/Malacanang Photo Bureau/Handout) # 15 Destroyed crops, after flash floods caused by a powerful typhoon hit Compostela Valley, on December 7, 2012.(AP Photo/Jay Morales, Malacanang Photo Bureau) # 16 Smoke rises from a village devastated by Typhoon Bopha as residents burn coconut leaves and other debris left at the height of last Tuesday's typhoon, in the coastal town of Boston, on December 10, 2012. (Reuters/Erik De Castro) # 17 A resident walks past the remains of a flash flood victim amid the debris from Tuesday's Typhoon Bopha at New Bataan township, on December 7, 2012. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) # 18 Rescuers retrieve flash flood victims from the Typhoon debris at New Bataan township, on December 7, 2012.(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) # 19 Relatives cross a river to bury a loved one who died in a flash flood caused by Typhoon Bopha, on December 6, 2012, in New Bataan township. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) # 20 A girl is comforted upon seeing the sealed coffin of her relative at a damaged public market which now serves as a makeshift mortuary for typhoon Bopha's victims at New Bataan township, on December 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) # 21 Damaged buildings, in the aftermath of Typhoon Bopha in Compostela Valley, on December 7, 2012.(Reuters/Jay Morales/Malacanang Photo Bureau) # 22 A stuffed toy hangs to dry from a damaged house in New Bataan township, on December 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) # 23 Children wait for free porridge distributed outside an evacuation center for residents who were rendered homeless after their houses were swept by floodwaters at the height of Typhoon Bopha, in New Bataan Town, on December 8, 2012. (Reuters/Erik De Castro) # 24 Residents impacted by the Typhoon line up for relief supplies at an evacuation center on December 6, 2012, in the Compostela Valley.(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) # 25 Residents affected by typhoon Bopha reach for relief goods distributed at New Bataan township, on December 9, 2012.(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) # 26 An elderly woman, a victim of the devastating Typhoon, begs for alms next to a sign displayed along the roadside in the town of Nabunturan Town, on December 9, 2012. Desperate families begged for food days after the typhoon brought death and destruction to parts of a southern Philippine island. (Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Images) # 27 A view of the devastation caused by Typhoon Bopha in the coastal town of Boston, on December 10, 2012. (Reuters/Erik De Castro) # 28 A man stands near makeshift tents surrounded by a destroyed banana plantation in New Bataan Town, on December 6, 2012. Typhoon Bopha caused crop damage worth 8.5 billion pesos ($210 million). The most intense storm to hit the Philippines this year wiped out about 90 percent of three coastal towns in Davao Oriental province and buried an entire town under mud. (Reuters/Erik De Castro)