Over 800 Feared Dead After Boat Capsizes in Philippines Typhoon

by Rob Walker | June 23, 2008 at 04:23 am

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The death toll in the Philippines could rise sharply after a typhoon hit over the weekend. At least 100 people were killed when streets flooded after powerful winds and torrents of rain blew through the area.

A boat carrying 850 people capsized and while search and rescue efforts were ongoing, officials say only 40 people made it to safety.

Rescuers scouring the seas around the wreck of the Philippine ferry that sank over the weekend with 850 people on board say that just 40 survivors have made it safely to shore.

A total of 28 passengers and crew from the MV Princess of Stars were reported to have been found late yesterday after reaching a coastal village in a lifeboat. Most of the other 12 reported survivors from the sea are believed not to have come from the ferry, but were instead fishermen who were sailing nearby and were hurled from their ships.

Hopes are fading fast for the hundreds still unaccounted for who were travelling on the ferry when it ran ashore and capsized on Saturday night as Typhoon Fengshen struck. No other signs of life have been found inside the 24,000-tonne vessel, which has been probed by navy divers, now that the seas have calmed.

The death toll from the powerful typhoon that killed more than 100 people in the Philippines last weekend could rise sharply after a ferry carrying more than 700 passengers and crew members capsized in the central part of the island chain, officials said.
The Red Cross reported that at least 137 people had been killed in the hurricane, not including those confirmed dead after the ferry sinking. Glenn Rabonza, executive director of the National Disaster Coordinating Council, said casualty figures were difficult to confirm because of extremely bad weather that was hampering search and recovery operations.

We got hit by Typhoon Frank over the weekend.

Original reports said that the typhoon was to stay off the East coast, only hitting the Visayas, but it turned west and hit the center of the islands.
I had to sigh when the CNNInternational newsreader kept trying to make the Manila correspondent spin the typhoon as unusual, i.e. another global warming disaster, but he correctly didn’t take the hint, and reminded her that these things happen all the time here. And indeed, they do: We average ten typhoons, including one supertyphoon, each year, and Northern Luzon has already had damage from a previous one a couple weeks ago.