Philippine Rescuers Search for Slide Victims

Rescuers battled rain, mud and floodwaters today to search for more than 100 missing people believed buried under tons of earth and debris and feared dead after landslides and huge waves devastated eastern Philippine villages, officials said.

Official death toll estimates ranged from 24 to 77 but a more specific count was not available because of the difficulty in reaching remote villages, said Allen Olayvar of the Office of Civil Defense in the hard-hit town of Liloan.

“We’re receiving so many reports from the interior areas of whole villages being buried, of so many deaths, but we could not confirm them because roads were so badly damaged,” Olayvar said by phone.

Rain has been pouring for days over the central Philippines and the southern island of Mindanao.

Landslides struck late Friday in the town of San Francisco in Southern Leyte province, leaving 13 people confirmed dead and 83 missing, Gov. Rosette Lerias said. Eighty houses were buried, she said.

In the nearby town of Liloan, authorities reported two people were killed in landslides and 17 were still buried in the debris and feared dead.

Three others died in the flood, Lerias said.

“There are landslides all over the province,” she said. “It has been raining for several days and the ground has become so saturated.”

Lerias, reached by telephone in Liloan, north of San Francisco, said 50 people were missing after huge Pacific Ocean waves battered three coastal villages in San Ricardo, on the east side of the island.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman held out hope that those missing may have sought shelter elsewhere.

Lorene Sia, duty officer at the regional civil defense office in Butuan on Mindanao island, said nine people were killed in landslides in Surigao city. Sia said six others were missing and six more were injured.