MANILA, Philippines ? At least nine people, including three foreigners trekking on Mt. Pinatubo, died in flash floods and landslides triggered by Typhoon ?Kiko? (international codename: Morakot) in Central and northern Luzon on Thursday and Friday, according to reports gathered by the Inquirer.

Strong rains caused the O?Donnell River in Capas, Tarlac, to breach its banks on Thursday afternoon, sweeping three foreigners and their Filipino guide in the current.

Senior Supt. Rudy Lacadin, Tarlac police director, said three Koreans and six French nationals survived the flash flood that occurred as they descended Pinatubo on Thursday afternoon.

The Tarlac police and the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC) identified the fatalities as Cholet Martine and Callet Thierry, both of France; Staylenan Walter of Belgium; and their Filipino guide, Ordonio Fernando.

The foreigners were part of a group of eight French nationals and one Belgian who registered at the Pinatubo Development Center in Capas at around 7:30 a.m. on Thursday for a trek on Pinatubo, according to Tarlac Gov. Victor Yap.

?We have no excuses for what happened. We will do further work to ensure the visitors? safety,? Governor Yap said.

Since 1993 when the Department of Tourism began the treks to the volcano and transferred management of the program to the local government in 2001, no tourist was reported to have met major accidents in the area.

Yap has suspended the treks indefinitely for safety reasons.

Two other Filipinos?Fidel Reyla, a barangay (village) watchman from Sta. Juliana, and a man identified only by his last name, Bacani?were also killed in the flash flood.

Reyla was swept by the current while assisting in the rescue operations, according to reports. The circumstances of Bacani?s death were unclear.

Their bodies were found Friday and taken to the Mallari Funeral Homes in Capas.

Baguio slide kills 3 brothers

In Baguio City, three brothers were killed when a landslide hit their house on Kennon Road at 12:30 a.m. Friday, according to reports from the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) in the Cordillera.

OCD Cordillera operations coordinator Alex Uy said brothers Eduardo, Michael and Chris Piska, aged 13, 12 and 7, respectively, were killed when their house in Barangay Camp 8 collapsed.

Another brother, Benro, 14, was injured. Their parents were able to get out of the house before it collapsed, Uy said.

The OCD also said Mariano Omipig, 80, and his wife Modesta, 79, suffered bruises when their house was swept by another landslide in Barangay Balsigan.

Yet another landslide buried a building of the Loacan Elementary School in Itogon, Benguet. No one was hurt as classes in the elementary and high school levels in Baguio and Benguet had been suspended, Uy said.

Portions of the Halsema Highway, which links Baguio to the Mountain Province and the interior Cordillera provinces, and Kennon Road, a major route to and from Baguio, were ordered closed by officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways due to landslides.

A retaining wall that collapsed at 8 p.m. on Thursday forced three families to flee their houses in Barangay City Camp.

Sections of Baguio lost power on Thursday and Friday due to toppled electric posts.

In Barangay Kias, at least 10 pocket miners were hurt and three others were reported missing after a landslide swamped the area where they were working.

Rafael Valencia, a member of the local group Rescue 911, said some of the miners were rescuing five of their companions who were buried by an earlier landslide in their shack when another landslide hit at about 9 a.m. Friday.

Survivors

Lacadin identified the Korean survivors as Han Tsung, Hang Hua and Han Sany.

Six Canadians and the three Koreans were whisked off the Pinatubo foothills by a Huey chopper dispatched by the 600th Air Force Wing at past 9 a.m. Friday, Air Force spokesperson Lt. Col. Gerry Zamudio told the Inquirer in Manila.

They were taken to the Capas District Hospital, Zamudio said.

He said two rescue helicopters from Clark were sent to the area after receiving a distress call from Capas Mayor Reynaldo Catacutan.

The PDCC identified the French survivors as Philipp Guinebert, 50; Philip Navaxa, 53; Helena Diaga Radjou, 43; Beatrice Le Guyader, 43; Didier Bazin, 48; and Mariefrance Fouchard, 54.

They were taken to the Central Luzon Doctors? Hospital (CLDH) in Tarlac City after they were rescued from various locations at the foot of Pinatubo.

This was how Radjou recounted their experience:

Survivor?s account

The group?five women and four men in two passenger jeepneys?stayed at the Pinatubo crater for only about five minutes and hurried down as it was beginning to rain hard on Thursday afternoon.

When they were about to cross the O?Donnell River, they saw the waters rising at an alarming rate.

Even while they were arguing with the drivers, who wanted to cross the river, the waters had risen so high and the current had become so strong that one of the jeepneys tilted.

The passengers of both jeepneys disembarked and ran for safety.

A number were swept by the waters, but the others were able to make it to higher ground.

Fouchard said she stayed overnight with a family that she found while seeking a safe spot. She said the 12-member family gave her food and clothing and a comfortable place to sleep.

No Aeta guide

Sta. Juliana officials told investigators and town officials that the tourists forced their way to the volcano by using off-road jeeps hired in Angeles City.

They said the tourists were not accompanied by local or Aeta guides who knew the terrain well.

The O?Donnell River is fed by Pinatubo?s watersheds and snakes down 30 kilometers before draining into the Sacobia River in the lowland.

The river bed is dry and filled with volcanic rocks, sand and ash during summer, but it transforms into a mighty river in the rainy season.

Marooned in Zambales

In Botolan, Zambales, more than 1,000 residents were marooned on their roofs on Thursday night after rainwater and mud from the slopes of Pinatubo breached a kilometer-long segment of the Bucao Dike, flooding at least 10 barangays.

The floodwaters rose to more than 5 feet (1.5 meters), forcing at least 1,000 families to flee to their roofs, Botolan Mayor Reger Yap told the Inquirer.

The flooded barangays are San Juan, Paudpod, Carael, Tampa, Pako, Beneg, Kapayawan, Bangan, Batonlapok and San Miguel, he said.

By 3 p.m. Friday, 1,548 families had been taken to a gymnasium at the Botolan town proper, while at least 200 families were taken to elementary schools in Porac and Bucao, Yap said.

Evacuation was ongoing at press time, with soldiers and policemen helping in the rescue effort.

116 children from rooftops

Air Force helicopters plucked 116 children from rooftops.

Water was at least 3 feet high on the national highway, cutting off Botolan from the southern towns of Zambales.

Motorists from Pangasinan using Zambales to get to Olongapo City, Pampanga and Metro Manila have turned back, using the Tarlac route instead, said Alfredo Tolentino, Department of Public Works and Highways director in Central Luzon.

Said Dr. Ted Esguerra, of the Philippine Coast Guard?s medical assistance response team: ?Vehicles can?t access; it?s very hard to penetrate the affected areas ... And the flooding is quick water. You?d be swept away by the current if you cross. So we put a rope across the roads so rescuers could cross.?

Impassable roads include the Bugalion Road in Olongapo and the Zambales-Tarlac Road in Barangay San Juan, Botolan, Esguerra said.

Bridge destroyed

Zambales Gov. Amor Deloso said the destruction of a bridge in Carael, Botolan, had slowed down the evacuation and relief efforts.

?We are used to facing emergencies like this in Zambales. But when that bridge [collapsed because of] the floods, it made our task much more difficult because now there is simply no way to bring relief goods and equipment to the northern part of the province,? he said.

Deloso said the strong currents were hindering evacuation efforts.

He said some evacuees had to be rescued using four rubber boats and two helicopters because they had been isolated by the rising waters.

Road impassable

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Administrator Armand Arreza, who went to Botolan with SBMA personnel to help in the relief and evacuation efforts, said the road leading to northern Zambales had become impassable.

?You need to go through Pangasinan to get to the north of Zambales?probably an eight-hour drive ? It looked as though a new river has been created here. There is a strong current, a lot of floating debris and mud on the roads,? Arreza said.

The SBMA has brought food, water, blankets and sleeping cots to the evacuation centers.

A couple surnamed Baylon and their son, earlier reported dead, were found marooned on top of a building at 11 a.m. Friday, Mayor Yap said.

The Bucao River is where the Balin-Baquero and Baquilan Rivers drain from Pinatubo to the South China Sea.

Government engineers built a canal on Pinatubo?s crater in 2000 to drain the water and prevent lahar avalanches to Botolan, a town of almost 50,000 residents.

Vehicles stalled

In Carranglan, Nueva Ecija, landslides on the mountain highway linking Cagayan Valley and Central Luzon have caused traffic to stall since late Thursday afternoon.

Abraham Pascua, cochair of the

PDCC in Nueva Ecija, said mud and rocks covered the highway?s Kilometer 193 in Barangay Putlan.

As of Friday morning, passenger buses, jeepneys, cars and other vehicles, bearing an undetermined number of passengers, remained stranded.

Mayor Florante Gerdan of Santa Fe, Nueva Vizcaya, said four major slides and several smaller ones had rendered the road impassable.

?The damage is quite heavy. I am afraid it would take days before the road will be passable again, especially because the rains had been nonstop,? he said.

Rainwater has eroded mountain slopes, toppled trees, damaged roadside drainage and swept rocks, soil and other debris onto the highway.

The long line of trucks, cars and passenger buses bound for Metro Manila and Cagayan Valley stretched for about 30 km.

The local governments of Santa Fe and Carranglan have distributed food packs to stranded motorists.

Pascua said DPWH officials in the two provinces had sent five bulldozers to clear the highway but the operation was being hampered by continuous slides brought by the heavy rainfall.

Pampanga, Pangasinan

The water levels at the Candaba and Arayat portions of the Pampanga River rose Friday.

The Pampanga River Basin Flood Forecasting and Monitoring Center in the City of San Fernando has asked the PDCC in Pampanga and Bulacan as well as the OCD to advise residents living on the riverbanks to watch for floods, said center manager Armand Taruc.

He said it was up to the local officials to decide on evacuation efforts.

In Calasiao, Pangasinan, the low-lying Barangays Banaoang, San Vicente, Talibaew, Pugo, Pandayan, Poblacion East and Poblacion West were swamped by waters from the Marusay River.

Calasiao Mayor Roy Macanlalay said classes had been suspended in at least two public schools.

At 10 a.m. Friday, the Agno River Flood Forecasting Center in Rosales town said in a flood bulletin that the rains had caused the Sinocalan River to swell. Reports from Tonette Orejas, Russell Arador, Robert Gonzaga, Anselmo Roque and Charlene Cayabyab, Inquirer Central Luzon; Frank Cimatu, Vincent Cabreza, Gabriel Cardinoza, Yolanda Sotelo, Melvin Gascon, Villamor Visaya Jr., Ben Moses Ebreo and Juliet Cataluña, Inquirer Northern Luzon; Jocelyn R. Uy and Tarra Quismundo in Manila