Six landslide survivors found
Source: Agencies |
October 11, 2009, Sunday
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Print Edition
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Rescuers dug out six survivors and more bodies buried under landslides that killed at least 225 people in the storm-soaked northern Philippines, as workers rushed yesterday to clear mountain roads to aid relief efforts.
US military helicopters were on standby to help the Philippine air force deliver aid to areas cut off by road as flooded highways hampered the search for people trapped in houses buried by mud.
Several choppers flew over areas yesterday where US troops planned to conduct medical missions and deliver supplies.
The rain-triggered landslides late Thursday and early Friday were the latest natural disaster to hit the Philippines, bringing to nearly 600 the total death toll of back-to-back storms that began pummeling the main island of Luzon on September 26, causing the worst flooding in more than 40 years.
Rescue operations were centered on two vast areas - the severely flooded Pangasinan Province northwest of Manila, and a swath covering the worst landslide-hit provinces of Benguet, Mountain Province and the resort city of Baguio, where most of the deaths occurred.
A 17-year-old boy was rescued from the rubble in his home in Baguio late Friday, and five others were pulled out alive in Mountain Province, said regional civil defense official Olive Luces.
"We are positive that we can still recover live victims. We don't think of the negatives," Luces said. "However difficult it is, our volunteers do not lose hope."
Luces said 152 bodies had been recovered in Benguet, 50 in Baguio and 23 in Mountain Province in the country's Cordillera region on the main Philippine island of Luzon after landslides hit the area on Thursday.
Aside from the 197 who died in the landslides late Thursday and early Friday, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said 51 people from eight other provinces also were killed after Typhoon Parma made landfall on October 3, weakened into a tropical depression and dumped more rain as it lingered over the northern region for about 10 days.
A week earlier, Tropical Storm Ketsana left 337 people dead in the worst floods to hit Manila and nearby provinces in four decades.
The sun broke through over Baguio yesterday as volunteers stepped up the search for survivors, Luces said.
US military helicopters were on standby to help the Philippine air force deliver aid to areas cut off by road as flooded highways hampered the search for people trapped in houses buried by mud.
Several choppers flew over areas yesterday where US troops planned to conduct medical missions and deliver supplies.
The rain-triggered landslides late Thursday and early Friday were the latest natural disaster to hit the Philippines, bringing to nearly 600 the total death toll of back-to-back storms that began pummeling the main island of Luzon on September 26, causing the worst flooding in more than 40 years.
Rescue operations were centered on two vast areas - the severely flooded Pangasinan Province northwest of Manila, and a swath covering the worst landslide-hit provinces of Benguet, Mountain Province and the resort city of Baguio, where most of the deaths occurred.
A 17-year-old boy was rescued from the rubble in his home in Baguio late Friday, and five others were pulled out alive in Mountain Province, said regional civil defense official Olive Luces.
"We are positive that we can still recover live victims. We don't think of the negatives," Luces said. "However difficult it is, our volunteers do not lose hope."
Luces said 152 bodies had been recovered in Benguet, 50 in Baguio and 23 in Mountain Province in the country's Cordillera region on the main Philippine island of Luzon after landslides hit the area on Thursday.
Aside from the 197 who died in the landslides late Thursday and early Friday, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said 51 people from eight other provinces also were killed after Typhoon Parma made landfall on October 3, weakened into a tropical depression and dumped more rain as it lingered over the northern region for about 10 days.
A week earlier, Tropical Storm Ketsana left 337 people dead in the worst floods to hit Manila and nearby provinces in four decades.
The sun broke through over Baguio yesterday as volunteers stepped up the search for survivors, Luces said.
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