| Get out yer checkbooks... |
Philippine rescuers shoveled away mud and boulders yesterday to recover bodies from mudslides that smothered mountainside villages. Officials feared the death toll from a powerful typhoon could double to 600. Seas of thick black mud made the going tough for rescue workers, who were not believed to have pulled any survivors from the muck since the first hours after Typhoon Durian blasted ashore Thursday. The storm affected 800,000 people, officials said. The official death toll hit 303, with another 300 people missing.
The Disaster Coordinating Council of worst-hit Albay province reported 285 dead, including 165 in the town of Guinobatan, swamped by floodwaters in the Mayon volcano's foothills. Three towns on Mayon's slopes, overwhelmed by mudslides of volcanic ash and boulders, each reported at least 22 dead. Four other provinces reported fatalities, but accurate casualty figures were hard to come by, with the disaster's devastation so widespread and power and phone lines down. In some places, rescue workers found only parts of bodies. |