Last Updated 02/12/2006, 13:08:52
The Philippines National Disaster Co-ordinating Council reports 198 people dead, and another 260 missing, after typhoon Durian blasted through the mid-eastern Philippines with winds of up to two hundred kilometres an hour.
Rescue and retrieval operations are trying to find survivors in several devastated villages as the typhoon moves into the south China sea heading for Vietnam.
Shirley Escalante reports five cities and towns in the mid-eastern Philippines which were badly hit by typhoon Durian have been placed under a state of calamity.
Under Philippine laws, declaring a state of calamity paves the way for the release of calamity funds.
The national government has also released 20 million US dollars for rescue and recovery operations.
Aerial inspections will be conducted, particularly over the Bicol region where a mudslide buried at least six villages.
More rescue teams will head to the region as roads have been cleared.
The Philippine Navy will also bring relief supplies. Typhoon Durian was the eighteenth storm to hit the Philippines this year.
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