Landslides kill 181 in Philippines

Landslides in the mountains of the northern Philippines last night killed 181 people, as families were still reeling from after a tropical storm that killed hundreds in the capital, Manila.

The country is still struggling to deal with the aftermath of two major storms, Typhoons Ketsana and Parma. Typhoon Ketsana left at least 400 people dead and hundreds of thousands stranded, while Typhoon Parma, which triggered last night’s landslides caused further damage just over a week later. The isolated Benguet province, where 120 people were confirmed killed in five towns, was the worst-hit, the area’s governor Nestor Fongwan said. In the mountain resort town of Baguio, another 38 people were confirmed killed. Across all of the northern Philippines, the confirmed death toll from the landslides was 181.

About 100 landslides had struck the region since the weekend, Rex Manuel, a relief official told Associated Press news agency. He said 17 bodies had been recovered from Kibungan village, in Benguet's La Trinidad township, which was almost entirely buried in mud and debris last night. An estimated 40 villagers were said to have died and more than 100 survivors were moved to safety. Thousands of people were stranded on rooftops in the farming region of Pangasinan province to the southwest in scenes dangerously similar to those in Manila a fortnight ago.

Days of rain from Parma forced authorities to open five dams, sending water powering through dozens of towns in Pangasinan. "A lot of places cannot be reached by our rubber boats because the current is too strong due to the waters released by San Roque dam," Amado Espino, the Pangasinan governor, said. "The dam is supposed to be for flood control but now it is so filled it is like it is not there. The water just rushes right through from the mountains to Pangasinan." Lt Col Ernesto Torres told Reuters news agency that 30,000 people had been evacuated in the province and 60-80% of the land was flooded.

The United Nations has appealed for £47m to help victims of storms in the south east Asian group of islands. About 500,000 people have fled their homes, it says and are still living in emergency shelters. The body has since warned of an urgent need for food, water, sanitation facilities, emergency shelter and health care provisions. Gwendolyn Pang of the Philippine National Red Cross told the BBC that getting aid to those in need was difficult as travelling by land was often impossible."Most of the areas are impassable because of landslides and because of the flood water, so we need to airlift relief food and also do rescues by airlift.”

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children