MANILA, Philippines — Rescuers searched today for survivors of a typhoon that capsized a ferry, flooded villages and left many hundreds dead or missing along its violent path.
Coast-guard chief Vice Adm. Wilfredo Tamayo said 28 survivors of the ferry disaster had been found. Manila’s DZBB radio said the survivors, including four crewmen and three women, drifted at sea for more than 24 hours wearing their life jackets, reaching Mulanay township in eastern Quezon province late Sunday.
Coast-guard frogmen who managed to get to the stricken ship got no response when they rapped on the hull, then had to give up late Sunday because of the strong waves. The ship carried more than 740 passengers and crew.
Tamayo said today rescuers may have to bore a hole in the ship to allow access for divers.
“They’re scouring the area. They’re studying the direction of the waves to determine where survivors may have drifted,” said Lt. Cmdr. Arman Balilo of the coast guard.
Rescuers hoped to get inside with U.S. assistance requested by the Philippine Red Cross. Typhoon Fengshen has killed at least 163 people across the sprawling archipelago, setting off landslides and floods and knocking out electricity.
So far, 38 people from the ferry, which was going from Manila to Cebu, are known to have made it to land. Six bodies, including those of a man and woman who had bound themselves together, have washed ashore, along with children’s slippers and life jackets.
Reynato Lanoria, a janitor on the ship who jumped into the water and reached a life raft, estimated about 100 people could have survived, “but the others were trapped inside.”
