Philippines’ flood deaths climb to 60
APALIT, Philippines, Aug 10, 2012 (AFP) - Weary farmers in the Philippines' farming heartland struggled amid their worst floods in decades on Friday, as the death toll from torrential rains that also pounded the capital rose to 60.
The floods that submerged 80 percent of Manila early in the week had largely subsided, allowing people to return to their homes, but water remained waist-deep across a huge area of a vital rice growing region to the north.
“We need something to eat. I haven't gone to work or been paid for a week,” said Rogelio Soco, a construction worker and father-of-three in the small farming town of Apalit, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Manila.
Soco, 60, said the floods, which began on Monday, were the worst the area had seen since a huge typhoon struck in the early 1970s, and other locals also said they had not experienced anything like it for decades.
Around Apalit, formerly green rice paddies had been turned into a vast inland ocean of brown water.
Some people stood waist-deep in water and fished in the rice fields as rain continued to fall, while others hitched rides from town to town on government-provided flat-bed trucks.
Nearly two weeks of monsoon rains across the Philippines' main island of Luzon peaked with a 48hour deluge earlier this week that battered Manila and surrounding regions.