Hope fades for typhoon victims

Rescuers today gave up hope of finding survivors in villages swamped by mudslides on the slopes of the Mayon volcano, five days after a typhoon killed an estimated 1,000 people.

Official figures showed 450 dead, 507 injured and 599 missing, but Senator Richard Gordon, head of the local Red Cross, said he believed more than 1,000 died in the thousands of homes that were buried under five feet of volcanic debris, mud and flood waters.

Asked about prospects of survivors being found, Juan Garcia, mayor of devastated Guinobatan town, said: “At this time, no more. I’m sorry.

“It’s almost impossible. They have been buried under sand and boulders. I don’t think they can survive. It’s impossible for anyone to survive.”

He said 186 bodies had been recovered and more than 300 were still missing in his village alone.

Attempts to retrieve bodies would continue.

As the extent of the disaster became clear, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo yesterday declared a state of national calamity, allowing the government to more rapidly release funds needed to bolster aid efforts.

“We are no strangers to this kind of tragedy and we have always been able to recover and become stronger,” she said in a statement today.

Arroyo said she instructed the department of the environment to step up a project to map all hazardous areas, like Mayon, to help forewarn communities of possible dangers.

“We must not leave things to fatal luck when we can develop the tools to prevent harm,” she said.

Fernando Gonzalez, governor of worst-hit Albay province, said the ground was too slippery for heavy machinery.

“There’s no choice but to dig by hand,” he told Radio DZBB. “Practically speaking, we are not very optimistic we’ll find survivors.”

Witnesses said the five-hour downpour on Thursday, brought by Typhoon Durian packing winds gusting up to 165 mph, dislodged tonnes of volcanic debris from Mayon’s slopes. Walls of mud and boulders destroyed nearly every standing structure in their path.

“It was like bowling,” said Guinobatan Vice-Mayor Gene Villareal.

Many bodies, mangled, unidentified and decomposing in the tropical heat, were quickly buried in mass graves.

Wangyu Abiera, leader of a search-and-rescue team, said volcanic rocks and sand buried houses in Albay province so compactly that air could not enter and breathing would be impossible.

All but two dozen of the deaths occurred in Albay. Four other provinces reported fatalities.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque warned residents, who depend on deep wells for drinking water, to boil it to prevent cholera and diarrhoea. No outbreaks have been reported so far.