Typhoon toll may be as high as 1,000
As many as 1,000 people may have died in the typhoon that unleashed walls of black mud on villages in the Philippines, the Red Cross said. The country’s president declared a state of national calamity.
Typhoon Durian struck the Philippines on Thursday with torrential rains and winds reaching 165 mph, causing ash and boulders from the Mayon volcano on Luzon island to swamp villages, a scene Philippine Sen. Richard Gordon described as a “war zone.”
Hopes of finding survivors beneath the mud and debris had virtually vanished. Today, rescuers were digging with their hands and shovels to retrieve bodies, said Fernando Gonzalez, governor of Albay province.
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