Arroyo visits typhoon-ravaged island

Arroyo visits typhoon-ravaged island

PHILIPPINES: President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, braving the stench of death, visited Cagayan de Oro city in a storm-ravaged island of Mindanao on Sunday and handed out cash to weeping relatives of villagers killed in the disaster.

The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) said revised casualty figures showed more than 270 were believed killed in the calamity, including 226 who drowned or were buried under piles of mud on the southern island of Camiguin, the worst hit area.

At Camiguin, 730 km south of Manila, Arroyo visited the devastated town of Mahinog and saw ruins of houses wrecked by rampaging floodwaters and torrents of mud from nearby hills when storm Lingling tore through the island on Wednesday.

Lingling, which has intensified into a typhoon, bore down on Vietnam on Sunday. --Reuters