Philippines desperate flood relief effort

Philippine rescue workers struggled through knee-deep mud and putrid water Monday in a desperate effort to help nearly half a million people displaced by devastating floods, as the death toll hit 100.

A Philippine man grieves next to the coffin of his wife and two young children who perished in floods which hit Manila. The Philippine government said Monday it could not cope with massive flooding that has displaced nearly half a million people and killed 100.

Reaching people still stranded after Saturday's disaster in the national capital of Manila and surrounding areas, preventing disease outbreaks and getting aid to survivors were all big concerns, authorities said.

"We are concentrating on massive relief operations. (But) the system is overwhelmed, local government units are overwhelmed," the head of the National Disaster Coordinating Council, Anthony Golez, told reporters.

"We were used to helping one city, one or two provinces but now, they are following one after another. Our assets and people are spread too thinly."

The death toll from the flooding climbed to 100, with 32 people still missing, the government said in its latest update on Monday afternoon. Another 451,000 had been forced out of their homes with 115,000 in evacuation centres.

Soldiers, police, medics and a huge number of volunteers were involved in the effort to help flood victims, authorities said.

Saturday's disaster saw tropical storm Ketsana pound the heaviest rain in more than 40 years on Manila and neighbouring areas of Luzon island.

The nine-hour deluge left some areas of Metro Manila, a sprawling city of 12 million people, under six metres (20 feet) of water, with poor drainage systems and other failed infrastructure exacerbating the problem.

Eighty percent of the city was submerged and, with parts of Manila remaining underwater on Monday, local television reported that some people remained stranded on the second floors of their homes.

Vast areas where flooding had subsided also remained covered in knee-deep sludge.

Adding to the chaos, telephone and power services in some parts of the city remained cut, while local government officials said survivors in makeshift evacuation camps were desperately short of food, water and clothes.

Meanwhile, there were fears the number of dead could soar past the official tally.

Radio station DZBB quoted local officials as saying that 58 more bodies had been recovered from a flooded area in the Manila suburb of Marikina, and that they had not yet been included in the official tally.

The chief of a riverside village in Quezon city, part of Metro Manila, also told AFP that 29 bodies had been recovered and 108 people remained missing from his community.

Armando Endaya, captain of Bagong Silangan village, said those deaths had not been reported to national government officials.

Endaya was overseeing a makeshift evacuation camp set up at a gymnasium, where more than 3,000 people were sheltering on the concrete floor alongside 11 white coffins containing the bodies of their neighbours.

"We are waiting for more aid to arrive. We are trying to mobilise our own relief operations here. But we need more help," Endaya told AFP from the gymnasium, which had a roof but no walls.

The home of Edgar Halog, 44, a jeepney driver, was destroyed in the floods and he was sheltering at the centre with his wife and seven children aged between three and 12.

"We do not have any money, we do not know what to do. We don't have any other relatives. We are waiting for food rations," Halog told AFP.

With sanitation services across the city in disarray, Health Secretary Francisco Duque said authorities were working to prevent disease outbreaks.

"Our health teams are bringing in water and (products for) sanitation and hygiene at evacuation centres to make sure that disease does not spread," he said.

Initial frantic rescue efforts saw military helicopters and rubber boats fan out across the city to pluck people off houses and car roofs.

The government said more than 7,900 people had been rescued.