Hope Fades Of Finding Typhoon Survivors
Officials could only apologize Monday when asked about the prospects of finding survivors in the towns and villages that were swamped by mudslides on the slopes of the Mayon volcano during a catastrophic typhoon last week.
"At this time, no more. I'm sorry," Juan Garcia, mayor of devastated Guinobatan town. "It's almost impossible. They have been buried under sand and boulders. I don't think they can survive. It's impossible for anyone to survive."
Sen. Richard Gordon, head of the national Red Cross, said he believed more than 1,000 died in the thousands of homes that were buried under 5 feet of volcanic debris, mud and flood waters. Official figures showed 450 dead, 507 injured and 599 missing, with no survivors pulled from the muck since the first few hours after Typhoon Durian roared ashore last Thursday.
Authorities in southern Vietnam, meanwhile, evacuated tens of thousands of residents from the south central provinces of Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan and Phu Yen where Durian was expected to hit Monday night.
Two fishermen died and another was missing in Phu Yen after their boats capsized in strong winds as the typhoon approached, disaster official Duong Van Huong said.
As the extent of the disaster in the Philippines became clear, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Sunday declared a state of national calamity, allowing the government to more rapidly release funds needed to bolster aid efforts.
"We are no strangers to this kind of tragedy, and we have always been able to recover and become stronger," she said in a statement Monday.
Arroyo said she instructed the Department of Environment to step up a project to map all hazardous areas, like Mayon, to warn communities of possible dangers.
Photos Of The Typhoon's Aftermath
"We must not leave things to fatal luck when we can develop the tools to prevent harm," she said.
Fernando Gonzalez, governor of worst-hit Albay province, said the ground was too slippery for backhoes.
"There's no choice but to dig by hand," he told Radio DZBB. "Practically speaking, we are not very optimistic we'll find survivors."
Witnesses said the five-hour downpour Thursday, brought by Typhoon Durian packing winds of up to 165 mph, dislodged tons of volcanic debris from Mayon's slopes. Walls of mud and boulders destroyed nearly every standing structure in their path.
"It was like bowling," said Guinobatan Vice Mayor Gene Villareal.
Many bodies, mangled, unidentified and decomposing in the tropical heat, were quickly buried in mass graves.
Wangyu Abiera, leader of a search-and-rescue team, said volcanic rocks and sand buried houses in Albay province so compactly that air could not enter and breathing would be impossible.
All but two dozen of the deaths occurred in Albay. Four other provinces reported fatalities.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque warned residents, who depend on deep wells for drinking water, to boil it to prevent cholera and diarrhea. No outbreaks have been reported so far.