Sunday, June 22, 2008

Typhoon Frank sinks MV Princess Of the Stars?


Typhoon Frank just hit Cebu the other day. We were in fact going to cancel our outing this week-end because the winds yesterday seemed pretty bad. It was also raining very hard last Friday. The sun was shining today, although it drizzled a little bit, it wasn't enough to dampen our spirits. That is until I read the news about another typhoon named Fengshen....


The MV Princess of the Stars (passenger ferry) went down at around noon Saturday (0400 GMT) several kilometres off the coast of Sibuyan Island after being battered by huge waves overnight when its engines failed, officials and survivors said.

Four bodies washed ashore on Sibuyan and three survivors were found, but the death toll is likely to rise sharply with the fate of the rest of the passengers and crew unknown, officials and reports said.

The ship, en route from the capital Manila to the central island of Cebu and 16 hours into its 22-hour voyage, issued a distress signal before going down.

A police boat reached the site early on Sunday, and officers found the ferry flipped over with only its bow visible above the water line, Tansingco told local radio.

As of the last report 700 passengers are still missing while 155 have been proclaimed dead as a result of the flash floods and winds from the typhoon.

Via AFP

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