updated 04 March 2010

QUEZON PHILATELIC CLUB HELPS FLASH FLOOD VICTIMS

 Reuters (Wednesday,  December  01,  2004)  QUEZON PROVINCE : More than 300 people died after flash floods and landslides devastated three coastal towns and left swathes of the northern Philippines under water on Tuesday.  The death toll was expected to rise as rescuers were unable to reach areas cut off by huge mudslides and fast-moving floodwater in the wake of tropical depression Winnie and as the country braced for another powerful storm.  At least 306 people died in the towns of Real,  Infanta and General Nakar in Quezon province,  about 80 km east of Manila,  Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman told television.  Soliman said 150 people were still missing in Real,  where witnesses said a torrent of logs and mud had swept down from the Sierra Madre mountains during Monday night’s downpour.  Rampant illegal logging has been blamed for leaving towns vulnerable to landslides,  a factor in several disasters in recent years.  “ We think that illegal logging can be one of the main reasons why floods affected those towns,”  said Jayjay Suarez,  vice governor of Quezon province.  The National Disaster Coordinating Committee said at least 21 people were killed in other provinces in the main northern island of Luzon.

Quezon Philatelic Club members prepared 12 boxes of used clothes and donated these items to the victims of flash floods in Northern Quezon province.  Photo taken at the house of Engr. Abet Alcala  (Stanley Siu,  Noel Antonio, Abet Alcala, and James Argosino)

Used clothes were channeled to STV – 6,  McDonalds relief assistance program, and a school principal in Infanta, Quezon (Noel Antonio,  Stanley Siu,  Tonette Alcala, James Argosino and Abet Alcala)