Philippines digs for storm survivors

Dozens feared buried in landslide caused by super typhoon Mangkhut

Philippine rescuers used shovels and bare hands to claw through mounds of rocky soil on Monday in a desperate search for dozens feared buried under a landslide unleashed by Typhoon Mangkhut.

Searchers have already pulled 11 bodies from the vast debris field in Itogon in the disaster-prone nation’s north. Dozens may still be buried, with little hope that they have survived.

Tearful families surrounded a white board bearing names of the dead and missing as others inspected recovered bodies for signs that could be their loved ones, more than 48 hours since the typhoon hit the north of the country’s main island of Luzon.

“We’re relieved that it’s not him,” Joan Catteg, 42, told AFP referring to her missing cousin Harvey, a miner in the area.

“He was at the bunkhouse during Typhoon Mangkhut. He texted his wife not to worry. He said nothing bad will happen to him and that once the rain stops, he will go up. But he hasn’t returned until now.”

Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan said there were an estimated 40 to 50 people in the area during the landslide.

“We believe that those people there, maybe 99 percent, are already dead, he said.

A hillside weakened by the monster storm’s lashing rains collapsed on the miners’ bunkhouse about half a kilometer below.

Mangkhut, the world’s most powerful storm this year, pounded the Philippines at the weekend with torrential rain and violent winds that snapped utility poles and sheared roofs off homes.

Authorities say 65 are confirmed dead, mostly buried in landslides.

Hundreds of rescuers in rows formed a human chain to pass rocks, debris and tree trunks out of the search area in Itogon.

The massive landslide left a gaping gash in a green hillside studded with small homes topped with rusting metal roofs.

With damaged roads preventing the use of heavy equipment, soldiers, police and miners used shovels and channeled water from a nearby stream to loosen the earth.

It was excruciatingly slow work, with rescuers having to hike down the mountain for an hour before getting to the site.