Typhoon Nearing RP Region Hit By Deforestation,Floods - 600 Dead So Far

[hatrack]

REAL, Philippines - "Rescuers dug with their bare hands on Wednesday to find survivors from landslides and floods that killed up to 600 people in a part of the northern Philippines due to be hit by a typhoon in just over 24 hours.

Residents of coastal towns worst hit by heavy rains early this week said food and water were running low as rescuers were forced to carry supplies on foot after roads were cut off and bad weather grounded rescue helicopters. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered a nationwide crackdown on the illegal logging believed to have worsened the landslides and told officials to do everything possible to protect people from the coming typhoon.

But the isolated location of the towns and worsening weather conditions made them inaccessible by sea or air, forcing hundreds of residents to wade for miles through deep mud for help. "Food and water supplies are running low and the stench of decomposing bodies is starting to overcome us," said Ros Calma, 37, who walked eight hours to escape Real, one of the three towns in Quezon province east of Manila.

EDIT

Decades of logging have cut forest cover in the Philippines from 34 percent in 1970 to 18 percent now, according to the Environmental Science for Social Change, a local activist group. The government imposed a selective log ban after widespread floods in the early 1990s, but numerous "crackdowns" have failed to halt a trade that is worth millions of dollars a year to smugglers and corrupt politicians."

EDIT

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/28388/story.htm

[phantom power]

1. Last night, the weather people were talking about how great it

was that hurricane season is over. And yet, we're still getting hurricanes. Of course, since we've all decided to call them typhoons in the pacific, nobody has to mention them.

[hatrack]

2. Naturally - if it didn't happen in the United States . . .

. . . it never happened! There, wasn't that easier than thinking?!?