Sun, Dec 03, 2006 page5

• Typhoon Durian deaths set to increase

  DISASTER Government figures put the death toll at 208 yesterday, but local officials said these numbers will climb over the following days as more bodies are discovered

  • AP
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  Philippine rescuers yesterday shoveled away debris to recover bodies from mudslides that swept down on mountainside villages as the death toll from a powerful typhoon passed 300 with up to another 300 people missing.

  Houses along the Yawa River in Padang, about 10km from Legazpi, the capital of worst-hit Albay province, were buried under 1.5 meters of mud with only roofs protruding.

  The national Office of Civil Defense reported 208 people dead, 261 missing and 90 injured. But the figures included only 22 dead and no one missing from the town of Guinobatan, where Albay Governor Fernando Gonzalez said a social welfare worker reported 120 bodies had been recovered from massive flooding.

  

  People make their way through debris left by Typhoon Durian yesterday in Legazpi City, southeast of Manila, Philippines. Philippine rescuers shoveled away debris to recover bodies from mudslides that swept down on mountainside villages as the death toll from the powerful typhoon increased.

  PHOTO: AP

  Officials feared the death toll would continue to climb as more bodies, some badly mangled by rocks carried by mud flows on slopes of the Mayon volcano, were dug up.

  "We need food, tents, water, body bags," Andrew Nocon, a Philippine National Red Cross official, told DZMM radio.

  "We sent initially 300 bags, but we need more," he said.

  In Padang village, 28 bodies were recovered and photographed for identification by relatives, said Luis Bello, the mayor's aide. Some of the bodies were washed to the sea and brought back by the currents to the shores of the adjacent town of Santo Domingo.

  Half of a 3.5-meter tall goal post at the local soccer field lay in debris from Mayon. Power pylons were toppled, and a two-lane highway became a one-lane debris-strewn road with overturned trucks scattered about. A backhoe lay half-buried by a massive boulder.

  Ash and boulders had been building high on the slopes of the 2,461-meter Mayon, which came to life in July. Typhoon Durian's blasts of wind and drenching rain raked it all down.

  For nearly three hours late on Thursday afternoon, mudslides ripped through Mayon's gullies, uprooting trees, flattening houses and engulfing people. Entire hamlets were swamped. Burials were expected to start yesterday.

  Other deaths were reported elsewhere in the Bicol region, which includes Albay, 340km southeast of Manila.

  "The retrieval operations are ongoing right now. This number of casualties might increase as we go on," Gonzalez said.

  "We should be able to distribute relief goods. The weather is pretty good today. Every corner of this province has been hit. It is a total devastation," he said.

  "The water was unprecedented. Never before in history have we seen water like this. Almost every residential area was flooded," he added.

  Padang residents Benjamin Luga, 70, and his wife Elizabeth, 62, said they escaped the onslaught by tearing down their bathroom ceiling and hiding in the roof. A big boulder halted just two meters from their house.

  "First we heard the howling winds, then came the flood. It was water, sand, gravel and boulders," Elizabeth Luga said.

  "I thought this will fall," she said, tapping on the wall of her house, the floor covered in 1.5 meters of mud.

  "It was like an earthquake," she said.

  Mayon, a popular tourist attraction because of its nearly perfect conical shape, is one of the Philippines' 22 active volcanos. It erupted in July, depositing millions of tonnes of rocks and volcanic ash on its slopes.

  A broken dike also flooded many parts of Albay, the local Red Cross said. It appealed for food, bottled water, blankets, mats and mosquito nets.

  Canada donated US$876,000, the Philippine Foreign Affairs Department reported, while Japan said it would send US$173,000.
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