Storms Philippines

The three dump trucks were painted bright orange, blue and yellow, but their grisly cargo was anything but jolly: dozens of bloated, blackened and battered bodies piled high. In the nearby public cemetery, victims of Tuesday's flash floods were heaped naked in the mud, awaiting burial in mass graves. Numbed survivors, holding their noses from the stench of death, searched for loved ones. Others wept as they dug shallow graves for bodies shrouded only in banana leaves or mats.

The typhoons that regularly ravage this rugged rocky island left calling cards by the town pier last year: a 300-foot-long gray navy transport ship sits rusting and aground, while a once-graceful white fishing junk is beached and broken on the black sand nearby.

Typhoon Utor lashed southern Taiwan early today, hours after it battered the northern Philippines with winds up to 105 mph and heavy rains that reportedly left 23 people dead. As Utor swept across the southern tip of Taiwan, authorities shut down several highways because of flash flooding and landslides. One person was killed, a fishing boat carrying seven crew members was missing, and 46 hikers in mountainous areas were stranded, officials said.

Tropical storm Lingling battered the Philippines for a second day Thursday, leaving at least 110 people dead, sinking a cargo ship and virtually shutting down several provinces. The death toll included 80 in Mahinog town on the resort island of Camiguin, which suffered its worst disaster in half a century. With 300 people missing, officials said the overall toll was likely to rise.

Workers prepared mass graves as search crews retrieved bodies from beneath boulders and collapsed homes Friday on a southern Philippine resort island swamped by Tropical Storm Lingling. Officials said they had confirmed 135 deaths, and 300 more people were missing. At the devastated community of Mahinog, a backhoe dug a huge hole in the town cemetery, and workers buried 15 people in plain plywood coffins.

Steady rain hampered the search Thursday for at least 155 people believed buried by a mountain of rotting garbage that crashed down on a squatters' neighborhood in the Philippines. At least 137 people were confirmed dead in Monday's collapse. Trucks continued to unload more trash at Manila's largest dump as hundreds of soldiers and volunteers shoveled through tons of waste in search of victims.

Typhoon Ivan struck the Philippines today, knocking down trees and power lines and forcing officials to cut off power to a northern province. Meanwhile, another powerful typhoon was head toward Japan. Ivan, with sustained winds of 105 mph and gusts of up to 125 mph, hit the Philippines near the town of Aparri, in the northeastern province of Cagayan, weather officials said.

Typhoon Zeb closed in on Taiwan after touching off floods and mudslides in the Philippines, killing at least 28 people and driving tens of thousands to shelters. Four of the deaths were reported in Taiwan, where the storm's outer fringes began flooding streets and triggering landslides that blocked traffic on many highways. The death toll in the Philippines was expected to rise.

Typhoon Babs swept across the central Philippines, ripping roofs off bamboo houses, triggering landslides and forcing widespread evacuations. Disaster officials said at least two people were killed and two others were injured by the storm. In Camarines Sur province, three fishermen were missing after they were washed away by surging waves. Schools, government offices and businesses were closed in Manila as the capital prepared for a direct hit.

Twenty people died and 400 were missing in the southern Philippines after flash floods triggered by apparent explosions crashed through villages, officials said. The explosions triggered a landslide into Lake Maughan inside the crater of Mt. Parker, 600 miles south of Manila on Mindanao island, the local officials said. This caused the lake and nearby rivers, already swollen by days of heavy rain, to burst their banks. Scientists say they do not believe an eruption is under way at 5,900-foot Mt.

Workers prepared mass graves as search crews retrieved bodies from beneath boulders and collapsed homes Friday on a southern Philippine resort island swamped by Tropical Storm Lingling. Officials said they had confirmed 135 deaths, and 300 more people were missing. At the devastated community of Mahinog, a backhoe dug a huge hole in the town cemetery, and workers buried 15 people in plain plywood coffins.

Tropical storm Lingling battered the Philippines for a second day Thursday, leaving at least 110 people dead, sinking a cargo ship and virtually shutting down several provinces. The death toll included 80 in Mahinog town on the resort island of Camiguin, which suffered its worst disaster in half a century. With 300 people missing, officials said the overall toll was likely to rise.

Typhoon Utor lashed southern Taiwan early today, hours after it battered the northern Philippines with winds up to 105 mph and heavy rains that reportedly left 23 people dead. As Utor swept across the southern tip of Taiwan, authorities shut down several highways because of flash flooding and landslides. One person was killed, a fishing boat carrying seven crew members was missing, and 46 hikers in mountainous areas were stranded, officials said.

Steady rain hampered the search Thursday for at least 155 people believed buried by a mountain of rotting garbage that crashed down on a squatters' neighborhood in the Philippines. At least 137 people were confirmed dead in Monday's collapse. Trucks continued to unload more trash at Manila's largest dump as hundreds of soldiers and volunteers shoveled through tons of waste in search of victims.

A typhoon east of the Philippines and a tropical depression blowing from the west dumped heavy rains over the main Philippine island of Luzon, killing at least three people and flooding wide areas. A man and a boy drowned in Manila, the capital, and a woman was killed and her daughter injured when a boulder crashed into their house in Tanay, east of Manila, authorities and media reports said. Strong waves in Manila Bay capsized a barge that serves as the kitchen of a floating restaurant.

Typhoon Babs swept across the central Philippines, ripping roofs off bamboo houses, triggering landslides and forcing widespread evacuations. Disaster officials said at least two people were killed and two others were injured by the storm. In Camarines Sur province, three fishermen were missing after they were washed away by surging waves. Schools, government offices and businesses were closed in Manila as the capital prepared for a direct hit.

Typhoon Zeb closed in on Taiwan after touching off floods and mudslides in the Philippines, killing at least 28 people and driving tens of thousands to shelters. Four of the deaths were reported in Taiwan, where the storm's outer fringes began flooding streets and triggering landslides that blocked traffic on many highways. The death toll in the Philippines was expected to rise.

Typhoon Ivan struck the Philippines today, knocking down trees and power lines and forcing officials to cut off power to a northern province. Meanwhile, another powerful typhoon was head toward Japan. Ivan, with sustained winds of 105 mph and gusts of up to 125 mph, hit the Philippines near the town of Aparri, in the northeastern province of Cagayan, weather officials said.

Inside the village hall, a middle-aged woman wept openly as she squatted before a row of four whitewashed coffins. "These are my children. They're gone," Marina Regencia said Sunday between sobs, pointing to the coffins of her 10- and 8-year-old daughters, 4-year-old son and month-old boy. A fifth child was still missing. The bodies were among 37 fished out of Calauag Bay on Friday and Saturday, after the 125-m.p.h.

The death toll from Typhoon Angela soared from 79 to more than 250 Saturday, with more than half of those killed in a province struck by high waves at the height of the storm, officials said. Dozens more people were reported missing in the most powerful typhoon to hit the Philippines in a decade. Thousands have been left homeless, their houses flooded or flattened by Angela's 125-m.p.h. winds.