388 dead in Philippine mudslides
Staff and agencies
Friday December 1, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
An elderly woman examines her destroyed house after Typhoon Durian hit Batangas, south of Manila, in the Philippines. Photograph: Romeo Ranoco/Reuters
The Red Cross said at least 388 people had died after rivers of mud as high as rooftops swept through villages surrounding the Mayon volcano, 190 miles south-east of Manila, in Albay province.
"Our rescue teams are overstretched rescuing people on rooftops," the head of the office of civil defence, Glen Rabonza, said.
The muddy wall of volcanic ash and boulders crashing down from the mountain affected at least four villages.
Typhoon Durian smashed into the Philippines with heavy rains and winds gusting up to 165mph, officials said. With power and phone lines downed by powerful winds, helicopters were carrying out aerial surveillance of cut-off areas. Officials estimated that the storm had affected some 22,000 people.
Graciano Yumul, of the department of science and technology, said the storm was particularly damaging because it came ashore yesterday in Catanduanes, an island province with no mountains to break the storm's momentum.
"So it really destroyed the island that it hit," Mr Yumul said. "That is the reason you are seeing the kind of destruction you are seeing right now."
Noel Rosal, mayor of Legazpi city, the provincial capital of Albay, visited nearby Padang, where he said some victims had their clothes ripped off as they were swept away by the mudslide.
"It's terrible. Based on our interviews with residents and village officials, more than 100 were killed or missing," he said. "We now call this place a black desert." Mayon, rising to 2,460 metres above the Albay Gulf, is the most active volcano in the Philippines. Since 1616, it has erupted 47 times.
It erupted in July, depositing millions of tonnes of rocks and volcanic ash on its slopes. A series of typhoons afterwards may have loosened the materials.
Mr Rosal said three of the five communities in Padang, a village of 1,400 people, had been "wiped out", with only the roofs of several houses jutting out of the debris. He said some boulders were as big as cars.
Padang could only be reached by foot or motorcycle, he said, because a bridge linking it to Legazpi, about six miles away, was damaged.
He said the mudslide occurred at mid-afternoon yesterday, when Typhoon Durian lashed the area.
Jukes Nunez of the Albay provincial disaster coordinating council said many communities were still flooded this morning.
"The requests for rescue are overwhelming. The disaster managers are victims themselves," he said.
The typhoon weakened today, as it moved north of Mindoro island, south of Manila, with sustained winds of 94mph and gusts of up to 116mph as it headed toward the South China sea.
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