- Title: PHILIPPINES: Filipinos clean-up following Typhoon Ketsana
- Date: 6th October 2009
- Summary: MARIKINA CITY, METRO MANILA, PHILIPPINES (OCTOBER 5, 2009) (REUTERS) PEOPLE CLEARING GARBAGE AND DEBRIS FROM STREETS INTO TRUCK GARBAGE BEING PICKED UP FROM STREET GUTTER MAN PUTTING DAMAGED ARMCHAIR IN BACK OF TRUCK MORE OF PEOPLE LOADING GARBAGE ONTO BACK OF TRUCK PILE OF DEBRIS NEXT TO TRUCK MAN PULLING LARGE SACK OF GARBAGE GARBAGE TRUCK FULL OF TRASH (SOUNDBITE) (Filipino) FRANCISCO DAZA, COMMUNITY OFFICIAL, SAYING: "We are still cleaning day and night so there won't be garbage anymore."
- Embargoed: 21st October 2009 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Philippines
- Country: Philippines
- Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
- Reuters ID: LVA8J3WMQCI5NV4PH8U7GPIF957N
- Story Text: As the clean-up operation begins in the Philippines, students return to schools in Manila but find themselves clearing classrooms rather than attending lessons.
Phillipines government cleaning teams took to the streets of Marikina City on Monday (October 5), to clear the debris and garbage left by floodwaters in the city east of Manila.
As the waters recede, Marikina residents are eager to get back to their normal lives, following the destruction caused by Typhoon Ketsana last week.
Local official Francisco Daza said the clean-up operation was a 24-hour job.
"We are still cleaning day and night so there won't be garbage anymore," he said.
For the first time since the record-breaking storm, students from affected areas returned to schools in the eastern parts of Metro Manila.
But the destruction left in the wake of the typhoon which killed nearly 300 people and forced about half a million from their homes, meant kids found themselves cleaning classrooms rather than attending lessons on their first day back.
"We're still cleaning because of the huge floodwaters that flowed into our school. They can't study well if they don't clean up the classrooms," said Nida Andrada, assistant principal of Marikina high school.
Many students, like 13-year-old Bernadette Tolentino, didn't turn up at all on Monday.
"I don't have school supplies and then there are many evacuees here in the school and I can't go to school," she said.
Many classrooms are still filled with evacuees, after schools became temporary shelters for those left homeless by the storm.
Nearly 300 people were killed and about half a million were forced out of their homes by Typhoon Ketsana. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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