MANILA, Philippines - Residents of a flood-ravaged middle-class suburb in Manila on Monday raced to save their homes from looters, as both sought to salvage televisions and other valuables from the deep brown sludge.

"We hope to recover something from our home, if there is anything left to recover," said resident Jun de Guzman, 48, as he and three relatives carrying brooms waded in the knee-deep muck covering what was left of Provident Village.

For some, it was too late as gangs of men pushing wooden carts went into abandoned homes and emerged with muddied electric fans and television sets.

Asked by an AFP reporter if they were the owners of the houses, the men refused to answer.
Salvaged appliances apparently collected by the looters were piled up on street corners.

Only two policemen were seen patrolling the gated enclave's streets, which were also littered with the wreckage of cars piled on top of each other. One was marooned precariously on top of a concrete fence.

The government had earlier warned that looting was a concern following Saturday's horror floods that killed at least 100 people and forced nearly half a million from their homes across Manila and surrounding provinces.

Some residents had refused to leave their homes in an effort to fend off looters, according to the head of the National Disaster Coordinating Council, Anthony Golez.

"They don't want to leave, maybe because they are afraid they will be robbed and will lose property. We understand that kind of sentiment," Golez said.

At Provident Village, an upscale suburb in eastern Manila, water climbed over dykes surrounding the nearby Marikina River on Saturday.

Within a few hours, a torrent of water six meters (20 feet) high was pounding through the village, said Lizette Lumantad, who survived with her five sons after being trapped on the third storey of an apartment block she owns.

"My family survived, but we saw cars slamming against the walls of the apartments below us," Lumantad told AFP.

Two days later and with the waters gone, chairs and electric fans hung grotesquely from a tree in the yard.

Lumantad and her sons attempted a post-flood clean-up with a water hose and brooms, but a sudden burst of rain instantly brought the mud flooding back.

Local officials said they were unable to cope with the scale of the disaster.

"We are doing what we can for the people to recover, but we need more help," said Marides Fernando, mayor of the eastern Manila district of Marikina that includes Provident Village.

She told AFP the city government needed heavy equipment urgently to move heavy debris.

Some 10,000 people huddled at Marikina evacuation centers were in need of food, Fernando said, adding that the survivors did not have cooking equipment.

Several fire trucks owned by volunteer fire brigades from Chinatown arrived to supply water rations to displaced residents. They also handed out rice and canned goods.