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Rain, floods in N. Philippines kill over 120Manila(Reuters)-Rescue workers dug out more than 120 bodies from under tons of mud debris in northern Philippines on Friday as dozens of landslides buried villages after a week of relentless rains, official said.
Scores of towns and villages in the lowlands were flooded as overflowing dams opened their sluice gates to release water. At least 122 were killed by landslides and 13 others have previously been killed by the rains, which started one week ago. “As of this moment, we have already retrieved 122 bodies,” Olive Luces, regional disaster head for the mountain regions, told television. Most of the deaths were in the vegetable-growing Benguet Province, and in neighboring Mountain Province. “We really have no idea how many people were buried when the landslides happened because it was almost midnight and everybody was asleep,” said Loreto Espineli, policechief of Benguet Province. “Our recovery efforts are slowed down by mud, heavy rains and lack of power.”The rains were brought by Typhoon Parama, which first hit the Philippines last Saturday and has since hovered around the northern part of the main island of Luzon, although　it　has　weakened　into a tropical　depression. Besides setting off landslides in the mountain, the rain has swollen rivers and reservoirs, forcing dams to release water and flooding areas downstream. (243 words)