With the nation still under a state of emergency, relief trucks are wading through flooded neighborhoods, hundreds of roads are completely impassible. WATCH DW News Nov 11 Philippines: Have the billions of dollars invested in flood control helped at all? TRANSCRIPT: The Philippines is recovering from the second destructive storm in less than a week. Super typhoon Fun Wong left a trail of destruction across the north, killing at least 18 people and cutting off entire towns. More than 1.4 million people have been displaced with huge numbers now sheltering in schools and community halls.
A storm so strong it's shaking the suspension bridge like a string. Waves as high as buildings pound the coastline. Flash floods, storm surges, landslides, and gale force winds tearing through villages.
This drone footage from the coastal Aurora province shows the aftermath. It's here that Fun Vong first made landfall.
All our belongings are now soaked. We weren't able to save anything. Our house is now filled with mud.
I've lived here my whole life, but this is the strongest typhoon we've experienced. The river has overflowed into our houses. Our crops are gone.
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this storm ripped across 2/3 of the archipelago. Just days ago, Typhoon Kalmaegi battered this same region, killing hundreds before families could even begin to recover, Fun Wong delivered another blow. Salvador de la Cruz is rebuilding what's left of his home again.
A huge wave 4 m high hit my house and destroyed it. The water reached further down the road and it was waist deep here.
Now that super typhoon Fun Wong has moved on, authorities are racing to restore power and reopen roads. With the nation still under a state of emergency, relief trucks are wading through flooded neighborhoods.
Across the islands, communities are pulling together, sharing supplies and opening shelters. Street by street, volunteers are pressing on, making sure no one is left behind.
Let's cross now to Kalumpit in the Philippines where we can get the very latest from journalist Dave Grunbal. good to see you Dave. Can you give us an update on the situation there where you are?
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Well, the death toll is now up to 18 people. Authorities say that many of them were buried in landslides and that's an ongoing concern here. While close to a million and a half people evacuated ahead of the storm, there's close to a quarter million people still in evacuation centers. And authorities say that they for a lot of them they just don't know when it will be safe for these people to go home because to the north of me here you've got mountainous terrain and the ground is just so saturated.
So authorities are really concerned that there may be landslides in the days ahead.
Also on top of that there are hundreds of roads that are just completely impassible including dozens of major roads. Some of these roads got swept over by flood waters which severely damaged the roads or in other cases debris was brought on that still needs to be cleared. And some of these roads were buried in landslides with giant trees that are on them now. And even when they get these major roads open, they still got to get clear clear through secondary streets and tertiary streets to get all the debris out of there.
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So some of these villages are just completely cut off and they just have no idea of the extent of the damage in some of these communities right now. When the Chico River burst through its banks, people had just minutes and many of them just scrambled to their rooftops, the only place they could go as they watched the river just flow through their villages carrying cars in some cases like they were just mere toys.
Now, the government ahead of the storm pivoted about 2,000 soldiers from field exercises to humanitarian aid where they're now working side by side with Red Cross workers and NOS's providing food, clothing, water, shelter to so many evacuees. And as I said, some of these evacuees could be there for quite some time. I mean, keep in mind, this storm had a diameter of 1,800 km, sustained wind speeds of 185 km per hour. Just an absolute monster.
It sounds like a really really serious situation. Dave, you you mentioned a couple of times there the flooding as a result of the the storms. I believe the Philippines has spent billions of dollars on flood control projects. Did they help at all reduce the effects of the typhoons?
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In some cases, yes, but in some cases absolutely not. In many cases, absolutely not. This country in recent years has spent about 8 billion US dollars on flood control projects, but investigators have determined that some of these projects that were marked as complete are nowhere near finished. Some of these projects that were marked as complete were never even started. We've got ghost projects here.
And even some of these projects that were complete, investigators found that there are total design flaws and engineering flaws that- they are just not up to standards. The community that I'm in right now, this neighborhood, this neighborhood, they had a flood control project and investigators determined that it did not meet standards. It's one of many across the country.
The flood control products we're talking about here include dikes and pumping stations. For this community, it was a dyke. But people are furious about it. It has led to massive protests. One in September drew more than 50,000 people. People are saying they want full investigations. Some government officials have resigned over this, but people are saying that's just not enough. They want full accountability and they want full investigations to determine who's involved with this. Were there kickbacks to government officials? And if so, which government officials took them? Which private contractors pay them? And people are saying, if this all turns out to be true, they want anyone responsible locked up.
journalist Dave Grunbau reporting from the Philippines. Dave, thank you so much.
***** First report today was vivid too
Philippines 2 typhoons in 6 days, 1.4 million evacuated- Sky News vivid 2.5 min report Nov 10 w/transcript- Heating Planet blog
in the last six days, this nation has been battered
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