MANILA: 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 Saturday 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 Saturday 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 more than 600 the total death toll of back-to-back storms that began pummeling the main island of Luzon Sept. 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.
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.
On Saturday, only more bodies were pulled from under tons of mud and rocks, but Luces said, “We are hopeful that we will get more people alive.”
She said local officials reported 152 bodies have so far been recovered in Benguet and 23 in Mountain Province.
