A devastating torrent of mud and volcanic ash triggered by typhoon rains swamped villages and swept at least 388 people to their deaths, Red Cross officials in the Philippines said yesterday. Another 96 were still missing, Red Cross spokeswoman Teresa Arguelles said, with all the deaths occurring in the eastern Albay Province.
She said she expected the death toll to rise still higher as rescuers reach places isolated by heavy rains and winds brought on when Super Typhoon Durian struck the Bicol region which includes Albay.
The mudslides triggered by Durian's rains reached as high as rooftops when they poured down from Mount Mayon volcano, around 350km southeast of Manila, witnesses said.
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo directed troops and police to back up provincial disaster relief agencies overwhelmed by the scale of the tragedy.
Rescue teams were hampered by blocked roads and swollen rivers as they tried to reach many of the villages dotted around the still-active volcano.
Glenn Rabonza, the executive officer of the national disaster coordinating council, said rescuers were concentrating their efforts on saving lives.
At least one person was killed in the town of Canaman after being hit by a piece of metal roofing blown off by gale force winds, the civil defense office added.
Roel Ilarena, a resident of Padang village near Mayon, said as many as 500 people may have been killed when the mudflow struck overnight. Officials could not confirm his story.
The storm damage knocked out electricity, telephone lines and water supplies across much of the Bicol peninsula that includes Legazpi and Daraga.
Legazpi City's airport was shut down as debris littered the runway. Windows and part of the terminal roof were destroyed. A power outage also knocked out the control tower.
Some 40 military rescuers were flown out from the capital to the Mayon area by helicopter.
A C-130 transport plane, loaded with equipment and rescuers, was expected to fly out to the area at dawn today, and rescue personnel plan to bring special search dogs trained to find buried bodies.
Storm alerts were lowered in most of the country yesterday as Durian continued moving west at 15kph into the South China Sea.
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