Mudslides Bury Philippine Towns
The official death toll from devastating mudslides in the Philippines rose to at least 127 on Monday, with searchers saying they have dug up the bodies of entire families huddled together in their buried village homes.
In a separate disaster, rescuers searched for a ferry in the southern Philippines not heard of since it radioed that it was sinking at sea with 75 people aboard on Sunday.
Authorities blamed illegal logging for the landslides, which were triggered by a week of pounding rains in provinces near the Pacific Ocean. Sporadic rains and strong sea waves hampered recovery efforts.
Television footage showed bodies of a family of five — mother, father and their children aged 5, 12 and 14 — lying in the mud and rain of their collapsed house in Liloan.
"We found families huddled together, other families were scattered," a rescuer told ABS-CBN TV.
Of those killed in the mudslides, at least 109 were in the central province of Southern Leyte, Vice Governor Eva Tomol told The Associated Press. Casualty figures were expected to rise, because rescue teams still haven't reached all the devastated villages.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo asked U.S. Ambassador Richard Ricciardone for Chinooks, the American military's all-weather troop and cargo helicopters, and thanked the U.S. government for its help. But on Monday, U.S. forces in Okinawa, Japan — where Arroyo said the helicopters would come from — said they'd heard of no plans to participate in rescue operations.
The National Disaster Coordinating Council also reported four people drowned in floodwaters and 14 killed in landslides in the northeastern part of the main southern island of Mindanao, close to Leyte, over the weekend. Close to 20,000 people were evacuated.
In San Francisco's village of Punta, where 77 died and 23 were missing out of its 360 residents, bodies were piled up close to the sea shore as mechanical diggers combed the earth for more victims buried in the mud that hit the area on late Friday and Saturday.
More than half of its 83 houses were destroyed or buried.
Fisherman Marciano Maquinano said he lost his entire family — his wife and three children — and six other relatives. He said he was fishing Friday night, unaware of the tragedy.
"I was out at sea and when I returned, it was over," he said.
His eyes bloodshot from weeping, he lit candles and kneeled beside makeshift plywood coffins scrawled with the names of his wife and children in white chalk.
Punta residents described hearing what sounded like a "crack of thunder" seconds before the mud cascaded down hillsides to their village. From the air, a large chunk of a hill appeared to have been gnawed off.
The debris — uprooted coconut trees with their fruits still hanging — pushed everything in its path out to the sea. Several bodies were found floating nearly 80 miles away.
There was so much debris that the shoreline jutted out several meters (yards) into the sea.
One survivor, a woman identified as Teresita, said she was buried briefly in her home, where rescuers retrieved the body of her 15-year-old daughter Irene late Sunday.
"If my daughter is dead, then I want to die too," the woman said, weeping.
Television footage showed a mud-splattered man desperately trying to dig out a body with a crowbar while a companion tried to pull it from the muck with his hands.
Leyte's Gov. Rosette Lerias said an 89-year-old man and 14-year-old girl were rescued. Both apparently survived in an air pocket.
Lerias said the mountainside village of Punta, with 360 residents, was a scene of mayhem with more than half of its 83 houses were destroyed or buried.
"There was mud all over. You couldn't see anything but rooftops with the houses submerged in mud. There's debris, wood, old clothes, kitchen utensils strewn all around," Lerias said. "The rescuers were using heavy equipment, and in one spot they dug up the hand of a child."
She called for the rescue operation to continue. "Even saving one or two would be worth all the effort," she said.
A local parish priest said the bodies, collected at a local gymnasium, would soon be buried in a mass grave as a precaution against disease.
Lerias said at least three villages on islands were cut off from rescuers. Huge waves had forced her boat to turn back as she approached a village in the San Ricardo area.
Lerias sent one of her staff, Lloyd Aviera, on a dinghy closer to the shore, from where he swam the rest of the way, her deputy said on the telephone. He reported back that Pinut-an "was like one big river bed. Of the church, only the cross on top of the steeple was visible. Everything is rubble."
Arroyo said most affected areas were near over-logged hills and mountains.
Environment Secretary Elisea Gozun said forests had been replaced by coconut plantations in the 1920s and 1930s, noting that coconut trees do not hold the soil as well as deep-rooted trees.
The weather bureau said Friday's rainfall was 21.89 inches — more than the average for the whole month of December.
Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita said weather was improving, at least temporarily, and two air force helicopters were flying over the disaster area. But weather forecasters warned of more rain in the coming days.
Also Monday, Pope John Paul II said he was "deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life" and prayed for the rescue workers, said the Vatican's nuncio in Manila, Archbishop Antonio Franco.
About 20 typhoons lash the Philippines each year. In November 1991, about 6,000 people were killed on Leyte island in floods and landslides triggered by a tropical storm.