Philippines worst typhoon Bopha

500 dead, Thousand homeless

NEW BATAAN: Nearly 200,000 people were homeless and nearly 500 dead after the Philippines' worst typhoon this year, officials said Thursday, as the government appealed for international help. Typhoon Bopha ploughed across Mindanao island on Tuesday, flattening whole towns in its path as hurricane-force winds brought torrential rain that triggered a deadly combination of floods and landslides. The army said it was looking for at least 377 missing people while seeking help for more than 179,000 others who sheltered in schools, gyms and other buildings after losing everything. The officials said many victims were poor migrants who flocked to landslide-prone sites like New Bataan and the nearby town of Monkayo to farm the lower slopes of mountains or work at unregulated mines in the gold rush area. Those in list of dead, 258 were found on the east coast of Mindanao while 191 were recovered in and around New Bataan and Monkayo, said Major-General Ariel Bernardo, head of an army division involved in the search. The civil defence office in Manila said 17 people were killed elsewhere in Mindanao along with nine in the central Visayan islands."We still have more than 377 missing and our challenge now is really to try to get to them," he told.