Mudslides, floods kill 160: Luzon goes under

MANILA — Rescuers struggled through mud and pounding rain Friday to clear mountain roads and retrieve more than 160 dead from dozens of landslides that buried villages and cut off towns in Luzon.

The latest calamity brought the death toll to more than 450 from the country’s worst flooding in 40 years after back-to-back storms started pounding the country’s north Sept. 26.

More than 160 people were killed in landslides in Benguet and Mountain Province along the Cordillera mountain range.

The fatalities included 120 in Benguet, Gov. Nestor Fongwan said, while 23 died in Mountain Province, according to Gov. Max Dalog. Another 25 people died in Baguio, city relief administrator Peter Fianza said.

Landslides blocked the roads to the mountain city of Baguio in the heart of the Cordillera region. The only way to reach the isolated, mountain communities was by foot, and military helicopters could not fly yet because of the storms, said Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres, spokesman for the government’s disaster-relief agency.

“We are focused on rescue at this time,” he said. “It is raining nonstop in the Cordilleras.”

About 100 landslides have struck the region since the weekend, said Rex Manuel, another relief official.

Seventeen bodies have been recovered so far from Kibungan village in Benguet’s La Trinidad township, which was almost entirely buried in mud and debris late Thursday, Manuel said. Up to 40 villagers were estimated to have died, while more than 100 were moved to safety, he said.

Rescuers in the hillside villages used pulleys to transport the dead they retrieved from a pile of rubble and mud.

“There was a sudden rumble above us, and then the houses at the bottom were gone, including them,” said Melody Coronel, pointing to the relatives she found among the dead.

In Buyagan village, also in La Trinidad, only three out of about 100 houses remained visible after Thursday night’s landslide buried most structures there. Some 50 residents were saved but it was not clear how many died, Manuel said.

In neighboring Mountain Province’s Tadian township, at least 28 people were reported missing and several bodies were recovered after the side of a mountain collapsed.

There was really heavy rain, so water had to be released from the dam, otherwise it would have been more dangerous,” said the government’s chief forecaster Nathaniel Cruz. “Even our office was flooded and our staff had to move to the rooftop. It’s near the river that they were monitoring.”

Heavy army trucks had difficulty penetrating the area, and provincial Vice Gov. Marlyn Primicias appealed for helicopters and boats to move people out of danger.

In Rosales, the biggest mall in town was flooded by neck-deep waters that sent appliances floating and smashing through glass panels. Some residents were seen carried the goods away.

Tropical storm “Pepeng” continued to dump more rain leaving over 67 percent of the province submerged as it finally made its way out of the country to the South China Sea yesterday.

Widespread flooding caused by the heavy rains since Wednesday has isolated the major population centers of the province as Pepeng continued to move out into the open sea.

Officials said 29 towns and the cities of Dagupan, Urdaneta and San Carlos came underwater, making it more difficult to coordinate rescue and evacuation efforts.

Heavy military trucks could not penetrate the roads, most of them submerged in waist deep floodwaters, as provincial officials led by Gov. Amado Espino appealed for outside help.

Initial reports said five people have drowned while almost two million people were affected by the flooding, worsened by the discharge of excess water from the dams already brimming from the recent heavy rains.

Four others also drowned in Sison town, the PSWDO said in its initial report.

Officials of the Philippine National Red Cross based in Dagupan City added 317 families or more than 1.8 million residents had been affected by the flooding.

Over 25,000 families from 295 barangays have been evacuated.

Pangasinan Vice Gov. Marlyn Primicias said she was getting frantic text messages from residents asking to be rescued, adding: “Eastern Pangasinan has become one big river.”

Rains and water discharged late Thursday night from a dam inundated 30 out of 46 towns along the Agno River in the province, Pangasinan provincial information officer Boots Velasco said.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said rains would still prevail over northern and central Luzon in the next few days as Pepeng exits.

As of 4 p.m. yesterday, the eye of “Pepeng” was spotted some 130 kilometers west of Vigan City, Ilocos Sur with maximum sustained winds of 55 kilometers per hour near the center. — AP (FREEMAN NEWS)