Death toll rises to 30 as floods subside in Zambales

Rescue workers retrieve a body from the wreckage of a house buried in deep mud due to a landslide in Castillejos, Subic, Zambales on Tuesday. INQUIRER PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

MANILA, Philippines — Rescuers dug more bodies out of landslides as floodwaters receded in the Philippines Wednesday, raising the death toll from days of monsoon rains worsened by Typhoon Usagi to 30.

Twenty-seven people were killed after rain-drenched hillsides collapsed on four mountainous villages around the northern town of Subic on Sunday, the civil defense office in the region said.

Two other people drowned in the area, while an elderly man succumbed to the cold, it said in a written update. Subic is about 80 kilometers northwest of Manila.

The office said a woman and a four-year-old girl remain missing near San Marcelino close to Subic, where rescuers are still digging in a neighborhood hit by one of the landslips.

Monsoon rains worsened by Usagi pounded the Philippines for three days from Saturday, causing floods and landslides that also forced more than 4,000 people to flee their inundated homes.