Death toll from Philippine typhoon breaches 1,000
In this photo taken Dec. 7, 2012 and released by the Malacanang Photo Bureau, the mudflow is covering a town after flash floods caused by Typhoon Bopha hit Compostela Valley, southern Philippines. Rescuers were digging through mud and debris to retrieve more bodies strewn across the farming valley in the southern Philippines by the powerful typhoon. The death toll from the storm has surpassed 500, with more than 400 people missing. (AP Photo/Malacanang Photo Bureau, Jay Morales) NO SALES
MANILA, Philippines >> The death toll from a typhoon that devastated mountainous and coastal towns in the southern Philippines with ferocious winds and flash floods this month has risen to more than 1,000.
Benito Ramos, who heads the government’s main disaster-response agency, said Sunday that previously unreported deaths have brought the toll wrought by Typhoon Bopha to 1,020. A massive search for 844 other people, including hundreds of fishermen and villagers who went missing in flood-swept mountainside towns, is to continue through the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
Ramos said army troops, police and government personnel have canceled Christmas celebrations to help survivors deal with losses and search for missing loved ones, especially in the worst-hit provinces of Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley, where international aid groups have descended
