BAGUIO (Philippines) - US MARINE CH-46 helicopters loaded with rice, sardines and drinking water flew on Sunday into a stricken Philippine mountain city where supplies are running short after landslides triggered by a storm blocked roads and buried dozens of residents.
FLOODING AND MUDSLIDES BLOCKED 3 KEY ROADS
SOME 53 of them died in Baguio, a summer tourist destination, 130 miles (210 kilometers) north of the capital Manila, known for its cool climate and winding, pine tree-lined roads.
Flooding and mudslides have blocked three key roads to the area, isolating the upland region for three days, said Marine Capt Jorge Escatell, a US military spokesman.
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Three days after tons of mud and rock cascaded down hillsides in Baguio because of heavy rains, rescuers were still digging for survivors. Meanwhile, panic buying of canned goods emptied several stores in the city, and authorities were forced to ration gasoline.
'There is nearly zero gasoline supply now, and we're running low on food,' city police chief Agrifino Javier told The Associated Press.
But as Tropical Depression Parma blew out late Saturday after drenching the country's north for a week, the overwhelmed government, helped by the US military, was able to step up relief efforts.
Back-to-back typhoons in the past two weeks have killed more than 600 people in the northern Philippines, posing a severe test to the authorities. Hundreds of thousands are still displaced from their homes, and the damage caused runs into hundreds of millions of dollars.
Baguio lies in a swath of the north where Parma?s rains have left at least 276 people dead.-- AP
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