Tens of thousands of Philippine flood survivors queued
for their Christmas meal in packed evacuation centres on Sunday, holiday
spirits doused by thoughts of more than 2,000 dead or missing kin.
Eight days after devastating
flash floods swept to sea entire communities from the southern island of
Mindanao, officials said 328,000 people were relying on emergency aid,
including more than 69,000 sheltering at evacuation centres.
Village chief Aurelio Magaro
joined 422 other survivors from the rural hamlet of Digkilaan lining up for
food in the courtyard of a school that was flattened by the overflowing
Mandulog river.
"We have a sad Christmas
this year, but we remain hopeful that we will recover," said Magaro, who
told AFP he lost 15 relatives to rampaging floodwaters unleashed by tropical
storm Washi on December 17.
"How can we celebrate
Christmas? We have no money and our houses are gone," said an elderly
woman in the queue, who like Magaro is temporarily sleeping at a nearby chapel.
A child sat on the drying mud
nearby wearing a red-and-white Santa Claus-style bonnet, the only local
reminder of Christmas in this mainly Roman Catholic country.
The official toll stood at
1,183 dead, said Lieutenant-Colonel Leopoldo Galon, a regional military
spokesman.
Rescuers say more than a
thousand others were listed as missing by relatives, though officials caution
many of them could be among the many unclaimed and badly decomposed cadavers at
overflowing local mortuaries.
Iligan health officer Levy
Villarin told AFP city facilities including schools and gymnasiums were
sheltering 57,000 people, including at least 5,000 who had lost their homes and
others whose dwellings were choked with mud.
"Some of them do not want
to return to their homes because of the traumatic experience that they
suffered. They had lost their relatives there," Villarin said.
He said some have to be
relocated within the week before students return from the Christmas holidays.
However he said permanent
relocation sites still have to be identified and structures built.
He said the city had buried
just a fourth of its 464 dead, a process slowed by the delay in forensic work
where DNA, fingerprint, and dental imprints have to be taken before burial.
Iligan and nearby Cagayan de
Oro were the worst-hit areas.
The small forensic team went
home to Manila to spend Christmas with their families and will resume work on
Monday, even as newly recovered corpses continue to arrive, he said.
Seventeen cadavers were washed
ashore Saturday in the port city of Oroquieta, 65 kilometres (40 miles) away,
while three others were dug out of the mud in Iligan, he said.
Noel Celis | AFP News
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