36 Killed In Ormoc Sea Mishap

[Dave Hounddriver]

36 killed in Ormoc sea mishap

 

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/regions/07/02/15/boat-carrying-over-100-passengers-capsizes-ormoc

 

 

The Ormoc City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) said 36 people died after a motorized boat reportedly carrying about 173 people capsized off Ormoc City on Thursday.

 

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said the incident occurred on Thursday afternoon. Soriaco Solibao, a city official, said the boat, M/V Kim Nirvana, capsized a kilometer from the pier.

 

One hundred and eighteen passengers were rescued, while 21 others are still missing.

 

A photo posted by Ronald Conopio on his Facebook page shows a big portion of the boat already under water.

 

Another photo shows rescue personnel conducting search operations.

 

Authorities have yet to release a report regarding the condition of the passengers, but photos by Serbisyo Publiko sa Radyo show some unconscious passengers were already brought back to the port.

 

The boat was bound for Camotes Island.

[Larry45]

Shameful...we rode by there less than an hour before it launched and the waves were coming over the seawall and I commented to wife that there would be no boats going out today.  Who knows who exactly made the call to launch the boat but it was an idiotic decision, and that's not from hindsight.  I've taken that trip several times, and I wouldn't have put my family on it today.  RIP to those that perished.

[Thomas]

Shameful...we rode by there less than an hour before it launched and the waves were coming over the seawall and I commented to wife that there would be no boats going out today.  Who knows who exactly made the call to launch the boat but it was an idiotic decision, and that's not from hindsight.  I've taken that trip several times, and I wouldn't have put my family on it today.  RIP to those that perished.

And I wouldn't be suprised if this too was a ferry made for INLAND lake/river trafic, and then they have made it even more unstable by add building at TOP :1 (103):

[Old55]

I read here that one of the outriggers broke as the boat turned too quickly. We all understand an idle ship makes no money but at what cost? 

 

 

At least 38 dead as Philippine ferry capsizes
Posted on 2 July 2015 - 03:44pm
Last updated on 3 July 2015 - 01:24am
 

MANILA: A ferry loaded with nearly 200 people capsized off a central Philippine port on Thursday, officials said, killing at least 38 people in the latest of the country's long string of maritime tragedies.

Up to 33 people are missing after the 33-tonne, wooden-hulled Kim Nirvana tipped over shortly after setting sail from Ormoc city at midday, the coast guard said.

Vegetable trader Reynante Manza, 45, cried as he recounted how the 33-tonne vessel suddenly rolled to one side as it reversed course shortly after backing out of the pier of Ormoc, pulling down his wife and many others under the water.

"It rolled while attempting to turn around swiftly. I am alive because I jumped overboard as soon as it happened," Manza told reporters.

Just a small section of the boat's underbelly, surrounded by rescue boats, was visible above water by late afternoon, according to an AFP photographer.

It bobbed above the waves a mere 200m from the shore, journalists on the scene said, much closer than the 1km estimate made by local disaster officials earlier.

Rescuers pulled 118 survivors from the sea and continue to scour the deep waters where the accident happened, said Philippine National Red Cross chief Richard Gordon told AFP.

Gordon put the toll at 38 dead and 33 missing, citing the latest figures from rescuers on the scene.

"Some clung on to the hull of the overturned vessel, while some were rescued while swimming toward the shore," Ciriaco Tolibao, an official from the city's disaster risk reduction and management office, told AFP.

A distraught male survivor wept openly as crew members clad in blue brought him ashore, as others, looking shaken, recounted their ordeal to rescue officials.

A nearby row of soaked survivors squatted on the pier awaiting attention, while medical workers placed the injured onto stretchers and relatives of the missing screamed and cried nearby.

The vessel was carrying 173 passengers and 16 crew members, and was licensed to carry up to 200 people, Tolibao said.

Many of the passengers were traders bringing farm produce and other merchandise to the Camotes island grouping, whose residents rely mostly on fishing, Tolibao added.

 

The authorities were puzzled how the accident had happened in relatively calm waters, after initial reports of choppy seas, and discounted speculation that it was overloaded.

"There wasn't any storm or any gale. We're trying to find out (why it happened)," Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commander Armand Balilo told AFP.

 

He said the boat's outriggers apparently broke in the accident, and added it was possible the crew had committed a navigational error.

The Kim Nirvana was on its normal route to the islands, which sit about an hour's sail from Ormoc city.

Tolibao said at least 53 survivors were brought to the hospital while more than two dozen others walked home.

Poorly maintained, loosely regulated ferries are the backbone of maritime travel in the sprawling archipelago.

This has led to frequent accidents that have claimed hundreds of lives in recent years, including the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster in 1987 when the Dona Paz ferry collided with an oil tanker, leaving more than 4,300 dead.

Ormoc and the rest of Leyte island was ravaged by Super Typhoon Haiyan which struck in November 2013, leaving more than 7,350 people dead or missing across the central Philippines.

A 1991 flash flood also killed around 6,000 people in Ormoc in one of the country's deadliest natural disasters.

The disaster-plagued Philippines is hit by about 20 typhoons and storms each year, many of them deadly. — AFP

Edited July 2, 2015 by Old55

[Gratefuled]

My wife heard the news on tv last night. She said that bags of rice and cement were stacked on one side but when the ferry was hit by the wave,the sacks fell and that tilted the ferry on its side. There were life jackets for all the passengers but not all of the passengers put them on. It was not overloaded with passengers as I first thought.

Still, as previously mentioned, the ferry should have never left knowing the weather condition. Someone took a chance with the passengers lives. Someone should be held responsible.

[Jollygoodfellow]

 

Three Americans are among the survivors. They are Rhome and Chip Nuttall and Larry Drake, according to Gordon.

 

 

 

"The passengers would have been farmers or fishermen, or ordinary businessmen -- common folks," he said.

 

"They are not very well off, otherwise they would be on better vessels or take the plane. But obviously, these are poor folks, simple folks who are trying to eke out an existence."

 

Ordinarily Americans too

 

 

A CNN Philippines reporter quoted the coast guard as saying the boat had left port too quickly and people stood up, throwing the boat off balance. Gordon said he understood the boat overturned because of high winds.

 

It's monsoon season in the Philippines, which adds to the likelihood of poor weather.

 

If that was the case the question is why did they even leave the port?

 

.......................................................

 

 

(CNN)A boat carrying 189 people has capsized in the central Philippines, minutes after leaving port, the Philippine Red Cross said Thursday.

 

There were 173 passengers and 16 crew members on board, according to Philippine Red Cross Chairman Richard Gordon, who spoke to CNN from Manila.

 

At least 38 have died, he said, and 134 survived. Seventeen people remain unaccounted for, he said.

 

The Philippine coast guard is leading the search, with divers from the Red Cross and the military involved.

 

Three Americans are among the survivors. They are Rhome and Chip Nuttall and Larry Drake, according to Gordon.

 

The MB Nirvana had just departed Ormoc City in Leyte province bound for the town of Pilar on Camotes Island, east of Cebu Island, about noon local time Thursday when the disaster occurred.

 

The boat, which is 27 meters (89 feet) long, was barely 200 meters (more than 650 feet) from the shore when it capsized, Philippine coast guard Lt. Christopher Ganet said.

 

He said those who have been rescued are being taken to hospitals in the area around Ormoc.

 

Video footage from the scene showed people of all ages, including a small child, being brought ashore in small inflatable craft. Some survivors were laid on the concrete waterfront, while others were wheeled away on stretchers.

 

Rescue workers were battling to find those unaccounted for before it gets dark.

 

Lt. James Reyes, a Philippine navy spokesman, said navy divers were helping in the search and rescue efforts.

 

They have underwater flashlights and other equipment to enable night diving, he said, and will try to carry out dives if the water conditions allow.

 

Gordon said Red Cross staff was on the pier in Ormoc with blankets and meals to assist those who made it back to shore.

 

Officials are trying to get divers to the scene, he said, and had hoped to put a helicopter in the air but have been prevented by "zero visibility" in poor weather conditions.

 

"The winds are really bad, and the seas are really bad," he said.

 

Investigators will examine what caused the boat to capsize.

 

A CNN Philippines reporter quoted the coast guard as saying the boat had left port too quickly and people stood up, throwing the boat off balance. Gordon said he understood the boat overturned because of high winds.

 

It's monsoon season in the Philippines, which adds to the likelihood of poor weather.

 

Gwendolyn Pang, secretary-general of the Philippine Red Cross in Manila, described the vessel as a commercial "pump boat" or banka, which is essentially a canoe-style craft with outriggers powered by a small engine. They're widely used across the Philippines for transporting people and goods as well as for fishing.

 

Gordon said the boat would operate three times a day on the route from Ormoc to Camotes Island.

 

"The passengers would have been farmers or fishermen, or ordinary businessmen -- common folks," he said.

 

"They are not very well off, otherwise they would be on better vessels or take the plane. But obviously, these are poor folks, simple folks who are trying to eke out an existence."

 

This style of outrigger boat has no cabins, he said, which should make it easier for divers to find anyone trapped under the canopy or keel of the vessel.

 

Gordon said Red Cross staff at the scene was checking who was on board and how many were children. Officials have also brought body bags in case they are needed, he said.

 

Many may not even be able to afford a proper burial, he added.

 

Hospitals take in survivors, bodies

Dr. Rolando Tomaro, medical director of Ormoc Doctors' Hospital, told CNN that four hospitals in the Ormoc area were receiving people caught up in the disaster.

 

At the Ormoc Doctors' Hospital, 21 survivors and 16 bodies had been brought in, he said. The dead included an 8-month-old child and his 13-year-old brother, he said.

 

Ten survivors remain in the hospital under observation, he said, but none are in a critical condition.

 

"We have to monitor them for signs of respiratory distress because of the near-drowning incident," he said. "They would have ingested seawater, so we are monitoring them. As of now, they are all stable."

 

Tomaro, who has been a surgeon at the hospital for 20 years, said it was the first time anything like this had occurred.

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/02/asia/philippines-ormoc-ferry-capsize/index.html

 

[Jollygoodfellow]

 

Shameful...we rode by there less than an hour before it launched and the waves were coming over the seawall and I commented to wife that there would be no boats going out today.  Who knows who exactly made the call to launch the boat but it was an idiotic decision, and that's not from hindsight.  I've taken that trip several times, and I wouldn't have put my family on it today.  RIP to those that perished.

And I wouldn't be suprised if this too was a ferry made for INLAND lake/river trafic, and then they have made it even more unstable by add building at TOP :1 (103):

 

 

 

It was not a ferry

 

 

Gwendolyn Pang, secretary-general of the Philippine Red Cross in Manila, described the vessel as a commercial "pump boat" or banka, which is essentially a canoe-style craft with outriggers powered by a small engine. They're widely used across the Philippines for transporting people and goods as well as for fishing.

[Larry45]

 

 

 

"The passengers would have been farmers or fishermen, or ordinary businessmen -- common folks," he said.

 

"They are not very well off, otherwise they would be on better vessels or take the plane. But obviously, these are poor folks, simple folks who are trying to eke out an existence."

 

 

 

 

Didn't know there were flights to Camotes yet?  Did they finish the airport already?  And I guess they now have fastcraft or a RORO plying those waters also.  I've never heard of that, but if the Philippines Coast Guard Chief said it, it must be true.   :rolleyes:

[Jollygoodfellow]

Shameful...we rode by there less than an hour before it launched and the waves were coming over the seawall and I commented to wife that there would be no boats going out today.  Who knows who exactly made the call to launch the boat but it was an idiotic decision, and that's not from hindsight.  I've taken that trip several times, and I wouldn't have put my family on it today.  RIP to those that perished.

 

Weather must of calmed down quick if the below statement is correct

 

 

Cloudy weather at the time of the accident did not pose any danger that would have prompted the coast guard to stop sea voyages, officials said.

 

A brewing storm in the Pacific was 550 kilometers (340 miles) east of Ormoc and was too far away to affect any part of the Philippine archipelago, according to forecasters. They said winds in the Ormoc region were not strong enough to whip up dangerous waves.

 

 

Read more at http://www.wral.com/36-dead-19-missing-as-ferry-capsizes-in-philippines/14750405/#sLsGbQMKWebJYrUY.99

[Thomas]

 

 

Shameful...we rode by there less than an hour before it launched and the waves were coming over the seawall and I commented to wife that there would be no boats going out today.  Who knows who exactly made the call to launch the boat but it was an idiotic decision, and that's not from hindsight.  I've taken that trip several times, and I wouldn't have put my family on it today.  RIP to those that perished.

And I wouldn't be suprised if this too was a ferry made for INLAND lake/river trafic, and then they have made it even more unstable by add building at TOP :1 (103):

 

 

 

It was not a ferry

 

 

Gwendolyn Pang, secretary-general of the Philippine Red Cross in Manila, described the vessel as a commercial "pump boat" or banka, which is essentially a canoe-style craft with outriggers powered by a small engine. They're widely used across the Philippines for transporting people and goods as well as for fishing.

 

Oh ok. I asumed it was a ferry because how can they put 173 passengers plus cargo at a banca without being overloaded...  :)