Philippine troops rushed food and drinking water by foot and helicopters on Sunday to areas cut off by four storms that left more than 1,300 people dead or missing as residents scrambled to flee the region People in some of the worst-affected areas of the eastern Quezon province begged military helicopters shuttling goods and the injured to take them away from the devastation caused by four storms in two weeks.
"Please take us out from here," said Mary Grace Estela, pleading to helicopter pilots ferrying back civilians to army bases. "The food is not enough here. We have no homes to return to, we have no livelihood."
Army and civilian engineers worked round-the-clock to clear mud-covered roads and build temporary bridges to reach relief to coastal towns in Quezon.
"People there are still in trauma and shock," Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman told Reuters. "We literally have to feed them because they lost everything. Even if they have money, there's nothing left to buy in that area."
She said Manila had received 29 million pesos ($518,000) worth of relief supplies from international and local agencies for distribution to over 500,000 people affected by the storms.
Drinking water, food, medicines and clothes were brought to Quezon by navy ships, airlifted by helicopters and then carried by hundreds of soldiers who walked hours to reach disaster areas.
Logging has been blamed for exacerbating the disasters and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said she was cancelling all permits to cut trees.
But experts say the problem is more complex and warned the environmental cost is likely to rise without a more comprehensive policy approach. Poverty, failure of governance and graft could be among factors for the rapid disappearance of the forests.
Oxfam, a British charity, said supplies of food for relief efforts would run out in about two weeks.
"If we were not able to put in safe water in about three or four days, we are looking at a serious situation of disease breaking out. Already, diarrhoea has started," Lilian Mercado, Oxfam's country manager, told Reuters.
The military is handing out two kg of rice, two tins of sardines and two packets of "Lucky Me" instant noodles for each family per day, but many survivors have no means of cooking the emergency rations.
Disaster officials said relief efforts will continue in the next 10 days before rehabilitation work begins. Nearly 98 percent of the areas hit by the disaster had been reached, including the tiny Polilio island in the Pacific Ocean.
As of Sunday, a total of 628 people were listed dead, 579 injured and 718 missing in nearly two weeks of stormy weather in the eastern and northern parts of the main Luzon island.
"Nature has punished us severely," said Jesus Pugay, a 62-year-old farmer in the town of Infanta. "Life here has been difficult. I don't know how long we can survive this ordeal."
The agriculture department said on Friday that 1.3 billion pesos ($2.3 million) worth of crops and fishery products were destroyed or damaged by the storms.
Francis Ricciardone, the US ambassador to the Philippines, flew on Sunday by helicopter to assess typhoon damages in the eastern Quezon province.
"The devastation is very phenomenal," he said after landing at a local school where hundreds of people have taken shelter.
The US military sent two helicopters to Quezon with body bags and rolls of plastic shelter materials for some 800 families.
Lieutenant-Colonel Restituto Padilla, an airforce spokesman, said 25 helicopters may be able to deliver over 15,000 pounds of relief goods as weather continued to improve.
A navy landing ship ferried heavy equipment and a coast guard hospital ship left Manila for the eastern coast to help in relief and clearing operations.
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