Storm toll nears 1000 as bodies recovered from sea

The death toll is expected to rise even further as more floating bodies are recovered after sunrise, said Benito Ramos, head of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, yesterday.

He put the total of the dead at 927, adding that the council had lost count of all those still missing after tropical storm Washi brought heavy rains, flash floods and overflowing rivers to the southern island of Mindanao.

"They [the bodies] were washed out to sea. They were underwater for the first three days but now, in their state of decomposition, they are bloated and floating to the surface," said Ramos.

"The death toll will rise again when more bodies surface."

The huge death toll came as government relief workers recovered more bodies from Mindanao, particularly in the devastated port cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, which have borne most of the deaths from Washi.

Whole villages perched on sandbars or on the banks of rivers were washed away when Washi struck Mindanao and nearby areas at the weekend.

Ramos' latest toll was a sharp increase from the council's previous figures of 662 dead and 82 missing issued just hours earlier.

The Philippine Red Cross, which is doing its own tally, reported 713 dead and 563 missing.

Iligan and Cagayan de Oro are planning mass burials as scores of decomposing bodies have swamped the local funeral parlours, filling the air with an overpowering stench.

The disaster area, about 800km from the capital, Manila, is normally bypassed by the average of 20 typhoons that ravage other parts of the far-flung Philippine archipelago every year.

As a result, many residents were caught by surprise when floods suddenly hit their homes in the dead of night, before dawn on Saturday.

President Benigno Aquino is scheduled to visit the storm-hit areas today after ordering a review of government disaster prevention measures.

- AAP