The death toll from the tropical storm "Lingling" has risen to 201 with at least 137 missing and feared dead, the Philippine Star reported Sunday.
Camiguin province has the most casualties with 122 dead and 119 missing. Fears of an epidemic have led Camiguin officials to focus on burying bodies -- not on finding survivors -- to prevent an outbreak of disease.
Damage to infrastructure, crops and private property was estimated to have reached at least 362 million pesos (7 million U. S. dollars), a local official said.
Recovery operations have been speeded up because the rains had finally ceased. But fears of epidemics are growing because water pipes in some parts of the island had been washed out by the flash floods, the official added.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is set to arrive the province Sunday morning and to attend Mass at a local church before inspecting Mahinog, the worst hit town of the province.
Arroyo has ordered the delivery of some 400 sacks of rice and the release of an initial 2 million pesos (38,462 US dollars) in calamity funds to help operations which have been hampered over the past three days because of continuing rain.
Storm "Lingling" hit Camiguin on Tuesday and battered the Visayas and Palawan of the central Philippines until it left on Friday when it intensified into a typhoon with sustained winds of 120 kph and gusts of up to 150 kph, gaining strength over the open waters of the South China Sea.
(China Daily November 11, 2001)
