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.