More bodies found from Philippine typhoon, U.S. vows aid
Pastor Dale Morgan
More bodies found from Philippine typhoon, U.S. vows aid*
By Romeo Ranoco
Reuters
Wednesday, June 25, 2008; 8:29 AM
SIBUYAN ISLAND, Philippines (Reuters) - Some 50 bodies were found 100 km
(60 miles) from a giant capsized ferry in the Philippines on Wednesday,
and Washington said it would send an aircraft carrier to help with
typhoon relief efforts.
Typhoon Fengshen tore into the centre of the country at the weekend,
toppling the MV Princess of the Stars, with 865 passengers and crew on
board, as well as a coal tanker and eight fishing vessels, and displaced
hundreds of thousands.
The overall death toll from the sixth typhoon to hit the Philippines
this storm season could reach around 1,100, while the damage bill to
homes, bridges and roads has been put at nearly 1 billion pesos ($22.4
million).
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The United States pledged to send an aircraft carrier, the USS Ronald
Reagan, to aid in the relief effort in the storm battered archipelago of
more than 7,000 islands.
U.S. navy divers from the USNS Stockham are already helping their
Philippine counterparts comb the seven-storey vessel where hundreds are
still feared trapped.
"They saw a lot of bodies down below but these have decomposed already,"
said Lieutenant Commander Inocencio Rosario.
"We need to use weights on the bodies so we could pull them out of the
holes of the ship and when we have taken them out, we will take off the
weights so that the bodies would float to the surface."
So far, 48 people are known to have survived the tragedy but hopes of
finding more alive are dim.
One survivor said there was a near stampede in the economy cabins when
the captain ordered people to abandon ship. Passengers jostled one
another to make it to the upper deck and many women and children were
left stranded.
"About 400 people were able to leave the ship, some in life rafts but
most jumped to the water leaving their fate to God like me," Jesse Buot
said.
On Wednesday, about 50 bodies were found floating around 100 km (60
miles) north of the Princess of the Stars but Lieutenant-Colonel Edgard
Arevalo could not yet confirm if they were from the ferry.
The retrieval operation is precarious. The ferry's stern off the central
island of Sibuyan is wedged on a rocky ledge and strong waves could
cause it to slide down.
BODY BAGS NEEDED
Rescuers, meanwhile, are running short of body bags and formaldehyde.
"Right now, what our navy personnel are using to control the smell is
gin," said Arevalo.
Shipping tragedies are common in the Philippines, where safety rules are
poorly implemented and substandard vessels ply dangerous waters.
An inquiry has already started into the Princess of the Stars disaster
and the coast guard station commander in Manila has been removed from
his post while it proceeds.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered a review of maritime
regulations.
Under current rules, the coast guard can only prevent a ship from
sailing if storm signal 2 or high is raised. When Princess of the Stars
left Manila on Friday the storm alert was 1.
The tragedy could be the Philippines' worst maritime disaster since 1987
when the Dona Paz ferry collided with an oil tanker, killing more than
4,000 people.
Sulpicio Lines, which owns the Princess of the Stars, also owned the
Dona Paz.
Fengshen, which has weakened to a tropical storm over southern China,
has also killed at least 288 people in the south and centre of the
country, excluding the ferry disaster.
More than 430,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes, and nearly
300,000 people remain with friends and relatives or are packed into
churches, town halls and schools.
(Writing by Carmel Crimmins; Additional reporting by Manny Mogato in
Cebu and Rosemarie Francisco and Karen Lema in Manila; Editing by Jeremy
Laurence and Sanjeev Miglani)