Manila sends troops for typhoon clean-up, toll rises

MANILA, Sep 30 (Reuters) President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo sent 2,000 soldiers today to help emergency workers clean up wide areas south of the Philippine capital after typhoon Xangsane left 61 people dead, 81 injured and 69 still missing.

About 40,000 people remained in temporary shelters two days after Xangsane, which means ''elephant'' in the Lao language, shut down Manila's financial markets, public offices and schools and left a trail of death and destruction in the Philippines.

''We have to effect normalisation in Metro Manila and other areas devastated,'' Arroyo told disaster officials at a meeting today to assess the damage to infrastructure, agriculture and private property.

Arroyo ordered troops to help clear roads of fallen trees, billboards and power lines and posts as the Philippines braced for another approaching storm spotted thousands of miles away in the Marianas islands in the Pacific.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council said about 15,000 houses had been either destroyed or damaged and nearly 300 million pesos (5.9 million dollar) worth of crops and fisheries lost.

Around 20 per cent of the sprawling capital of 12 million and nearby towns in four provinces remained without electricity, water and communication services, hampering relief efforts in remote villages still under floodwaters.

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