Philippine Flood Crisis Deepens

[Louisiana1976]

Hundreds of thousands of exhausted Philippine flood survivors crammed into schools, gymnasiums, churches and other makeshift shelters on Tuesday as the death toll from the weekend disaster soared to 246.

Three days after a once-in-a-generation storm pounded Manila and surrounding regions, officials said they were unable to cope with the enormous number of flood victims who were continuing to pour into the evacuation centres.

"More people are coming in by the hour... We don't know how long we will be able to sustain this," said Joe Ferrer, a local government official in charge of a shelter on a basketball court on the outskirts of the Manila area.

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President Gloria Arroyo described the floods as a "once-in-a-lifetime" event, and in an extraordinary move opened the Malacanang presidential palace to flood survivors. Related article.

After word of the offer spread, hundreds of people converged on the palace and received plastic bags filled with noodles and canned sardines.

"We just heard it in the news that they are giving relief goods at the palace so we walked for one hour," said street sweeper Rosette Serrano, 31, who lost everything except her clothes when her house was submerged on Saturday.

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more...http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Philippine_flood_crisis_deepens_dea_09292009.html

[Douglas Carpenter]

1. thanks for posting this

I'm actually scheduled to fly to Manila on Saturday. This I have planned for months.

I have several very close friends in the Philippines. Fortunately, they report that they are all safe and sound. But, I'm hearing that right now there are well over a million homeless people in Metro Manila alone.

[mainer]

2. My son just left for Manila today - without a hotel reservation

He's into "adventure travel." I worry that this is going to be far more adventurous than he bargained for.