Funeral parlors are overwhelmed and running out of coffins after a tropical storm killed hundreds on the southern island of Mindanao. Some 47,000 people are huddling in evacuation centers.

Appeals have been made for more bottled water, blankets, tents and clothes.

Sailors in the capital Manila shipped wooden coffins and containers with water bottles to the south to help the local authorities.

The United Nations food agency also flew in three tons of high-protein biscuits, as well as water, blankets, tarpaulins and tents.

Tropical storm Washi ravaged the southern Philippines at 2:30 a.m. local time on Saturday, with pounding rain triggering flash floods and landslides across the north coast of the island of Mindanao.

The worst hit cities were Cagayan de Oro and nearby Iligan. Many of the victims were caught in their beds as floodwaters tore through coastal communities and swept the dead out to sea. They were mainly women and children.

President visits Cagayan

President Benigno Aquino made a visit to the disaster zone on Tuesday and said the national calamity declaration would help the local authorities gain quick access to recovery funds and also keep the price of basic goods stable.

"Our national government will do its best to prevent a repeat of this tragedy," the president told residents who had come to greet him. He added that there would be an examination of what had gone wrong and why the storm had cost so much loss of life. "There should have been efforts to avoid the destruction," he stated.

Officials have been organizing mass funerals to minimize health risks from rotting cadavers. "We're doing this for public health reasons. The bodies are decomposing and there is no place we can put them, not in an enclosed building or gymnasium," Lawrence Cruz, the mayor of Iligan told AP.

Prone to natural disasters

The Philippines, which is located in the so-called "typhoon belt" between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea, is hit by over 20 storms and typhoons a year. Moreover, there are also frequent volcanic eruptions and earthquakes because of the country's location in the "Pacific Rim of Fire."

The ports of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, which are both built on the mouths of major rivers, are natural flood magnets, according to Sevillo David from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau. "We are frequently visited by rains and typhoons. Combining this you can expect flooding and landslides," he said.

Ignored warnings

However, human neglect is also to blame for the devastating consequences of Washi. Those most affected lived in shanty villages made of light materials and built haphazardly on top of loose deposits of river sediment.

He and his colleagues coordinating a five-year government program to map hazardous areas had issued recommendations that residents be relocated but were ignored.

"It takes political will to implement some of the recommendations," David told AFP. "If you move people you need to find a site for them."

Gwendolyn Pang, secretary-general of the Philippine Red Cross said that residents had been "caught unawares" because Mindanao is not usually prone to typhoons.

But Benito Ramos from the national disaster council disagreed and suggested local officials and residents had been negligent. "They were forewarned these were risky areas," he said. "They were aware that they were in a flood-prone area and most of them are informal settlers."

Author: Anne Thomas (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)
Editor: Sarah Berning