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AP/PA Images

'People fled for their lives': Death toll in Philippines storm rises to 200

A total of 70,000 have been displaced or otherwise affected by the storm.

MORE THAN 200 people have been killed and scores are missing in the southern Philippines after a tropical storm triggered severe flooding and landslides that also wrecked Christmas for tens of thousands of survivors.

Tropical Storm Tembin lashed Mindanao island, home to 20 million people, on Friday with strong gusts and torrential rain, wiping out at least one mountain village and prompting a massive rescue operation.

Police said 208 people were confirmed dead and 164 remained missing, while more than 40,000 had fled their homes for evacuation camps as Tembin roared out into the South China Sea early Sunday.

A total of 70,000 have been displaced or otherwise affected by the storm, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), which warned that continued heavy rain could hamper the search for survivors.

“People left everything behind when they fled for their lives,” the IFRC’s Philippines operations and programmes manager Patrick Elliott said in a statement.

Waist-deep water 

The archipelago nation is pummelled by major storms every year, many of them deadly. Mindanao tends to be less affected and officials said this may have caused many to ignore warnings to move to safer ground.

Footage showed vast tracts of land on the island submerged by brown water, often waist-deep, with streets turning into rivers.

Xinhua News Agency / PA Images Xinhua News Agency / PA Images / PA Images

Local police said 135 people were killed and 72 missing in the northern section of Mindanao, while 47 were dead and 72 missing in the impoverished Zamboanga peninsula on its western side.

Another 26 people perished with 20 missing in the province of Lanao del Sur in the centre of the island, based on an updated official tally there.

Village erased 

One of the places hit hardest was the mountain village of Dalama, which was virtually wiped off the map as roaring floodwater carried away 103 houses.

Footage on ABS-CBN showed houses there destroyed or engulfed by floodwater and rescuers retrieving the body of a girl buried in a landslide.

Police, soldiers and volunteers used shovels and their bare hands to dig through mud and debris in their search for survivors.

“The flood was already close and the people were not able to get out from their homes,” Armando Sangcopan, an elderly male survivor, told the station.

Xinhua News Agency / PA Images Xinhua News Agency / PA Images / PA Images

“We called for forced evacuation, pre-emptive evacuation in certain areas. We are saddened by the (large) numbers of casualties,” Romina Marasigan, spokeswoman for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, told reporters in Manila.

In the town of Kabasalan in Zamboanga, dozens of families huddled in the homes of neighbours on Christmas Eve, two days after floods carried off 40 houses, killing three people with one missing, said local civil defence chief Junalyn Maravillo.

“This is a disaster. They don’t think about Christmas. All they think about is what they will eat for today,” she told AFP.

Pope Francis said in Rome he was praying for storm victims in the Philippines, where some 80 percent of the population is Catholic.

“May the merciful God welcome the souls of the dead and comfort those who suffer from this calamity,” he said.

The storm swept into the South China Sea before dawn Sunday after hitting the western tourist island of Palawan overnight Saturday, the state weather service said.

“So far zero casualties, but we have accounts of some people missing,” Palawan civil defence chief Zaldy Ablana told DZMM radio on Sunday.

But in a Palawan fishing village, a 53-year-old man was killed by a crocodile while securing his boat in a river.

Tembin struck less than a week after Tropical Storm Kai-Tak left scores dead and more than 20 missing in the central Philippines, straining the disaster-prone nation’s already stretched resources.

The deadliest typhoon to hit the country is still Haiyan, which killed thousands and destroyed entire towns in heavily populated areas of the central Philippines in November 2013.

- © AFP 2017.

Read: Over 180 killed as Philippines storm triggers flash floods and mudslides>

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    Mute Paul Shepherd
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    Nov 8th 2021, 8:55 AM

    ….and prosecuted?

    458
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    Mute D. Memery
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    Nov 8th 2021, 9:27 AM

    @Paul Shepherd: the article says they would have to be convicted, so I’d imagine a prosecution would be required to get to that stage.

    46
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    Mute
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    Nov 8th 2021, 11:26 AM

    @Paul Shepherd: They could only punish them once they’ve been prosecuted, so yes obviously.

    27
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    Mute Brian O'Grady
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    Nov 8th 2021, 9:00 AM

    Permanent ban on selling tobacco products if caught selling to minors.

    460
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    Mute Declan Doherty
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    Nov 8th 2021, 9:01 AM

    What about alcohol being sold to underage kids ? It’s a far more dangerous and toxic drug and can easily kill in minutes through overdose ? Cigarettes are bad but they’re not an immediate concern. And if we’re so keen to keep dangerous drugs away from kids, why do we preserve and protect the black market that has no problem selling untested and unregulated products to anyone of any age ? It makes zero sense and as toxic as they are, Cigarettes should be the least of our concerns when it comes to drugs and children.

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    Mute Mick Dunne
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    Nov 8th 2021, 10:21 AM

    @Declan Doherty: so is cigarettes

    22
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    Mute Tommy Roche
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    Nov 8th 2021, 10:54 AM

    @Declan Doherty: The same laws apply where alcohol is concerned. In fact I’ve never heard of a shop being banned from selling tobacco after being caught selling to minors, but know of at least 3 pubs locally that have been ordered to close for a number of weeks for serving underage people.

    42
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    Mute Pam
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    Nov 8th 2021, 9:05 AM

    No, but they should have to pay huge fines. If they’re banned where will elderly locals who smoke go to buy their cigarettes?

    99
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    Mute Contrary Mary
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    Nov 8th 2021, 9:14 AM

    @Pam: To another store, where they will buy other things. All the more reason to not sell to minors.

    123
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    Mute Rob Hunt
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    Nov 8th 2021, 12:08 PM

    @Pam: I actually think incurring the wrath of the elderly locals would be at least as much of a deterrent as the financial impact of not being able to sell them. Win win.

    31
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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Nov 8th 2021, 7:15 PM

    @Pam: I agree, I don’t see why local adults should be inconvenienced simply because aome staff member failed to ask someone completely different for ID.

    5
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    Mute Serge the llama
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    Nov 8th 2021, 10:02 AM

    Heard one in the local shop the other day. Young lad asked for ID for scratch card. Well his mother came in roaring dogs abuse at the cashier for requesting ID when his 18. Why isn’t everyone asked for ID. Pointing at the long line of customers.

    Queues were building up. Everyone was looking because the customer was so loud and obnoxious. Poor cashier went bright red but didn’t back down refused to sell the scratch card and quoted the regulations in an extremely loud voice.

    Requiring a valid photo ID for anyone who is under 21. A physical driver’s license, passport or Garda age card, not the photo of one on a phone that could be photoshopped.

    On a side note most supermarkets ask for ID if someone looks under 25.

    101
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    Mute Seeking Truth
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    Nov 8th 2021, 1:18 PM

    @Serge the llama: I bought a bottle of something recently and they did not even blink an eye or ask for proof of age. A sign that I am well past that age cohort to be asked for ID LOL

    13
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    Mute Dave O'Keeffe
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    Nov 8th 2021, 5:21 PM

    @Serge the llama: I saw a boy in school uniform ask for cigarettes. He was asked for ID, he didn’t have it. He left and his mother came in roaring about being in a hurry and that it was disgraceful that the shop had asked him for ID and made her get out of her car!

    14
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    Mute DERRY1973
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    Nov 8th 2021, 10:24 AM

    5 weeks off the cigarettes today, way too expensive a habit now, mind you I don’t know where all the money I saved went.

    72
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    Mute Padraic McDonagh
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    Nov 8th 2021, 10:33 AM

    @DERRY1973: food! Or it least in my case I replaced one bad habit with another.

    25
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    Mute Thomas Armstrong
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    Nov 8th 2021, 2:01 PM

    @DERRY1973: Hope y stay off them. I’m 4 years now but the test is if you like the pub the drink & the cig go hand in hand in the smoking area.

    13
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    Mute James Clifford
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    Nov 8th 2021, 6:10 PM

    @DERRY1973: congratulations and well done

    14
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    Mute Watchful Axe
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    Nov 8th 2021, 9:29 PM

    @DERRY1973: All the best, I used to take out the calculator app on the phone every so often and work out the money saved as a bit of a motivator.
    It also motivates when you look back and figure you’ve smoked the price of a new car over the years, no point starting on a second car.

    2
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    Mute Mark Howard
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    Nov 8th 2021, 9:20 AM

    Or in other words persecute (yes – persecute) shopkeepers for making the odd mistake instead of the parents of these brats who are roaming the streets causing trouble. How quickly people forget they were singing the praises of retailers during the lockdown. We’re a great country for blaming the wrong person

    90
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    Mute Jo H
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    Nov 8th 2021, 10:23 AM

    @Mark Howard: it is a big jump from a teen kid taking up/trying cigarette smoking to them being br*ts who are roaming the streets to cause trouble! Have all the people you know who smoke, or are ex smokers, been that type of person?? For the record, I don’t think shops should have a their licence suspended unless a repeat offender

    34
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    Mute NoPlanetB
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    Nov 8th 2021, 10:09 AM

    The way this works is they find some lad who is 6’6″ with a beard who looks 30 but is actually a teenager. They get him to ask for cigarettes in a string of shops at a busy time and when the teenager working behind the counter fails to ask for an ID the shop is nabbed.
    It is a form of entrapment. The only safe approach for shopkeepers is to get the ID from everyone, including the 60 year old granny who smokes the Superkings.

    30
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    Mute Dave O'Keeffe
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    Nov 8th 2021, 5:19 PM

    @NoPlanetB: the very fact that he looks 30 would be a mitigating factor. I work in the industry, they aren’t trying to trick people. They’ll usually send in an older looking person but in their school uniform or an older person that looks far younger. There is room for a genuine mistake being made within the regulations

    7
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    Mute TomTraubert
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    Nov 8th 2021, 11:00 AM

    So, Hayley is having us vote on her own offence/punishment combination?

    Another journal poll fail

    Remember Hayley’s ‘do you prefer rain or sun poll’

    I reckon we should have a poll asking should Hayley be allowed to make polls

    ;-)

    24
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    Mute Rob Hunt
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    Nov 8th 2021, 12:11 PM

    @TomTraubert: Even setting aside that this is a commercial site with an editorial team and a content marketing strategy, it’s a bit nasty having a go the individual author.

    16
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    Mute TomTraubert
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    Nov 9th 2021, 11:13 AM

    @Rob Hunt: dial it down a bit there Rob fgs.

    1
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    Mute Mike Dunne
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    Nov 8th 2021, 9:28 AM

    I’ll carry on buying mine on the black market.

    23
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    Mute Tracktrack
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    Nov 8th 2021, 12:43 PM

    @Mike Dunne: Very foolish idea. Not only is it breaking the law, but those cigarettes could be counterfeit, have mould or other contamination to make them even more deadly.

    18
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    Mute Paul Cunningham
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    Nov 8th 2021, 4:00 PM

    @Tracktrack: Thats why its easier on smokers to just fly out of the country, bring back a carton or two and pocket the savings. Can you blame them doing that when the prices are so high the black market thrives?

    7
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    Mute Liam Mc Meel
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    Nov 8th 2021, 9:52 AM

    I go to the shop on a regular basis for me da with a note asking for John player blue and a lighter as me da can’t walk very far

    19
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    Mute John Mulligan
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    Nov 8th 2021, 9:21 AM

    It’s a while since I heard such a ridiculous plan. Retailers should be fined €10,000 and possibly be also imprisoned for supplying a dangerous drug to children.
    A suspension is unbelievable for such a serious offence.

    29
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    Mute Mark Howard
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    Nov 8th 2021, 9:43 AM

    @John Mulligan: Sounds like you could do with a smoke yourself . . .

    75
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    Mute Mick Dunne
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    Nov 8th 2021, 10:19 AM

    They should be banned for good

    24
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    Mute Ballybough Marcus
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    Nov 8th 2021, 10:09 AM

    Common sense says yes.

    13
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    Mute JillyBean
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    Nov 8th 2021, 10:38 AM

    I think there should be an award as to which teenagers are most convicing. The award would be a packet of Benson’s finest

    11
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    Mute ed w
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    Nov 8th 2021, 9:38 AM

    banned from selling them to minors for a few days or cigarettes for a few days ?

    12
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    Mute Michael Carolan
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    Nov 8th 2021, 12:04 PM

    May be it’s about time the purchase of cigarettes should be as restrictive as possible…..e.g. available on prescription from a GP and only purchased from a pharmacy. In that way, the support and advise for giving them up is immediately available. But hey, it’s easy as a non smoker to say this.

    8
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    Mute Shawn Rahoon
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    Nov 8th 2021, 1:03 PM

    Many shops in US won’t sell cigs to customers of any age unless they have some form of ID.

    5
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    Mute ChronicAnxiety
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    Nov 8th 2021, 9:43 AM

    These are drugs, treat them as if thay had been dealing grass.

    6
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    Mute Declan Doherty
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    Nov 8th 2021, 9:49 AM

    @ChronicAnxiety: Why ? Weed is harmless when compared to cigarettes and alcohol. Alcohol can kill a child in minutes. Neither weed nor cigarettes are going to do them any harm in the short term. Why would you treat them all the same when the risk is radically different.

    33
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    Mute Willie Penwright
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    Nov 8th 2021, 10:50 AM

    @ChronicAnxiety: Dealing grass is a monopoly of the the crime lords and so is beyond the reach of this government.

    10
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    Mute Willie Penwright
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    Nov 8th 2021, 10:48 AM

    Great idea, practical and it would work and so cannot be tried.

    3
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    Mute Garreth Byrne
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    Nov 8th 2021, 5:45 PM

    yes, no and don’t know do not amount to a sufficient number of possible responses. This online opinion poll has no scientific validity.

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    Mute Mikey
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    Nov 8th 2021, 12:36 PM

    No, what harm are they doing.

    2
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    Mute Mick Curran
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    Nov 8th 2021, 6:23 PM

    A few days???
    Permanent ban, followed by prosecution and stiff penalties.

    2
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