Filipinos dig way out of tons of mud and ash

Filipinos dig way out of tons of mud and ash

MANILA (Agencies): Filipinos started yesterday digging their homes and roads out from under tons of volcanic debris washed down from Pinatubo volcano by heavy rains spawned by tropical storm Nina when it hit the Philippines.

Light rain fell on the slopes of Pinatubo as hundreds of people picked through the rubble of homes swamped by steaming mud and ash, a relief official said.

"We have not received any report of anybody missing, injured or dead. The mudflows have gone down," the official said by phone.

People living in the town of Bacolor, where most of the houses were buried to their rooftops by an avalanche of three meters high mud, tried to salvage what was left of their meager belongings.

The road linking Manila to the Subic Bay freeport was also closed after volcanic debris covered the freeway.

"We are trying to clear the road, but it remains closed," an official with the government's Public Works and Highways department told a Manila radio station.

Nina moved slowly away from the country after its heavy rains lashed wide areas of the main island of Luzon. It was the second weather disturbance to hit the Philippines in a week.

Typhoon Kent battered the country last week, killing five people and causing flash floods in Manila and in villages at the foot of Pinatubo.

Meanwhile, after spending the last 24 hours saving lives, rescuers turned their attention yesterday to a coffin swept away by mudflows that struck a Philippine village during a wake.

Police said the crew of a rescue helicopter recovered a coffin containing the remains of Marieta Cayanan de Jesus which had been washed away by a torrent of mud from Mount Pinatubo volcano north of Manila.

The old woman's coffin was lying at home awaiting the wake when the mudflows struck, police said. They said the coffin would be returned to de Jesus's family.

Thousands of people were forced to flee their homes near Pinatubo after tropical storm Nina passed over the northern Philippines on Monday.

The mudflows have become an annual ordeal for people in the area since the volcano erupted in 1991, leaving millions of tons of debris on its flanks.

In another development, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said the Pampanga police were "conducting a head count of persons who insist on remaining in high risk areas, especially in Bacolor."

Defense Secretary Renato de Villa said the government was "using all available assets to evacuate people in danger."

Bacolor is adjacent to the Pasig-Potrero river, the conduit for the debris, on the central Luzon plain, east of Pinatubo and north of Manila.