Heavy rains hampered relief efforts in the storm-lashed central Philippines Thursday as workers using bulldozers dug mass graves and officials said the death toll could top 4,000.
In flood-devastated Ormoc city, 350 miles southeast of Manila, dazed survivors combed streets and beaches, searching for the bodies of relatives.Officials said at least 3,168 people were killed Tuesday, most of them in Ormoc, when tropical storm Thelma unleashed flash floods and landslides through central Leyte province.
More than 3,000 others were missing. Many of them, rescuers fear, were flushed into Ormoc bay or buried alive. Provincial officials said the final death toll may exceed 4,000.
"It's like a battlefield," Ormoc Mayor Victoria Locsin said of her devastated city of 120,000. "It's a terrible disaster (that killed) thousands of people in a few hours."
Survivors said they had little warning. Some said they heard two loud blasts, then a rumbling as the storm burst a nearby irrigation dam and sent a torrent of mud and water crashing down on their homes.
"It was like a big truck running after me," said Gemma Catarman. "I ran as fast as I could but water caught up with me. I saw a fallen coconut tree and I clung to it for three hours until the water receded."
The 16-year-old, her voice breaking and tears streaming down her face, said she saw her mother being swept away. "She couldn't hold on," the girl said.
The disaster was among the deadliest in modern Philippine history. Some 3,000 people were killed in a 1976 earthquake and tidal wave in the southern island of Mindanao. More than 1,600 died in an earthquake that struck the northern part of the country in July 1990.
President Corazon Aquino said she would declare a state of calamity in hard-hit areas of the province to free government aid and authorize the use of military units to prevent looting and distribute supplies.
Initial government estimates put the cost of damage to property, crops and infrastructure at $15 million. Some 7,100 families lost their homes.
Bloated corpses were strewn throughout the city. Fishermen pulled 820 bodies from waters off Ormoc Thursday.
Witnesses said unclaimed bodies were being hauled to mass graves "by the truckload."
There were no spare coffins. People ripped wooden planks off their battered shacks for makeshift caskets, or wrapped their loved ones in blankets, sacks and paper. The stench of decomposing bodies was everywhere.
"They need donations of food, clothing, chlorine to treat unpotable water and cadaver bags," said Lito Osmena, governor of nearby Cebu. "The priests cannot bless everybody, there are so many dead."
"Our relief operations are extensive although we're having difficulties because several villages are still isolated," said Red Cross volunteer Vivian Concepcion.
Thelma was a relatively weak storm, packing peak winds of only 47 mph, but officials said heavy rain combined with a high tide to magnify its destructive power.