UN to assess storm damage

UN humanitarian chief John Holmes is to begin a two-day visit to the Philippines Monday to review relief efforts in response to the devastating Tropical Storm Ketsana and Typhoon Parma, the world body said Friday. Holmes, currently touring Yemen to assess the humanitarian needs of civilians displaced by two months of warfare in the north of the country, was to confer with Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, her cabinet ministers, UN officials and donors, UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said.

She said Holmes’ upcoming trip follows recent reports of “a serious situation” in northern Luzon, the Philippines’ main island, “as a result of incessant rainfall exacerbating the floods and the number in people in need of immediate humanitarian assistance.” The death toll from two weeks of unprecedented storms across the northern Philippines soared past 540 on Friday after landslides consumed homes and neck-deep floods inundated towns.

At least 181 people were killed in a series of rain-triggered landslides overnight Thursday and on Friday in mountainous regions of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon, local officials reported.The downstream farming plains of central Luzon were inundated with waters that reached two storeys high after dams in the mountains could not hold the phenomenal amount of water that has fallen on the region.Montas said a flash appeal for 74 million dollars launched by the UN to support Philippine government relief efforts “has so far been funded with 13.6 million dollars, 18 percent of the amount needed.” Meanwhile Ann Veneman, the executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), on Thursday visited Pasig City, part of the Manila metropolitan area and one of the hardest-hit districts, to inspect the damage caused by the storm and the subsequent massive flooding.

-AFP