Typhoon Turns Toward China After Killing at Least 124 in Philippines

Typhoon Babs raced toward southern China today after leaving at least 124 people dead, crops flattened and more than 100,000 people homeless in the Philippines.

Philippines President Joseph Estrada declared a state of calamity in three provinces and a city in the worst-hit area on the southern tip of Luzon Island. More provinces were expected to be added to the list once the full extent of the damage was determined.

The toll in the central and northern Philippines was expected to rise as contacts were restored with remote areas where telephone service was knocked out and roads were blocked by landslides and flooding.

At least 53 of the dead were from landslides on rain-soaked Catanduanes Island, where Babs first crossed land Thursday, said Renato Arevalo, director of the Office of Civil Defense.

More than 320,000 people were forced to flee their homes, Red Cross officials said. Tens of thousands of others were stranded as ports were closed and ships forbidden to depart.

About 15,700 people were removed from low-lying areas in Manila, the capital, officials said.

Some people, cradling chickens and dogs, stood on the roofs of their flooded homes, a few possessions piled next to them. Others used tire tubes to float toward safer ground.

Babs also pounded areas with heavy rain around the Mt. Pinatubo volcano, unleashing 5-foot-high avalanches of volcanic material from the mountain’s slopes. Most of the material was carried safely away by swollen rivers.