The powerful typhoon that swept away emergency shelters, a military camp and possibly entire families in the southern Philippines has killed about 350 people with nearly 400 missing, officials said today.
More bodies were retrieved from hardest-hit Compostela Valley, where at least 200 died, and Davao Oriental provinces and six others hit by Tuesday’s storm, the Office of Civil Defence said. “ Entire families may have been washed away,” said interior secretary Mar Roxas, who visited New Bataan.
The farming town of 45,000 people was a muddy wasteland of collapsed houses and coconut and banana trees felled by ferocious winds. Bodies of victims were laid on the ground for viewing by people searching for missing relatives. Some were badly mangled after being dragged by
raging floodwaters.
A tornado has swept through suburbs of Auckland, killing three and forcing 250 to evacuate. The storm hit Hobsonville and Whenuapai, in the western part of New Zealand’s largest city, uprooting trees, damaging buildings and flooding roads.
