Rescuers battled rain, mud and floodwaters yesterday in search of survivors and the dead after landslides and huge waves devastated eastern Philippine villages in a pre-Christmas tragedy that officials fear may have killed up to 200 people.

　　Melchor Rosales, executive director of the National Disaster Coordination Center, said the death toll has risen to at least 83 people, including 61 in the hard-hit central province of Southern Leyte, and 123 others were still missing.

　　Officials feared the final fatality count rise as bad weather, blocked roads and downed power and telephone lines hampered rescue and recovery work. Leyte Governor Rosette Lerias, who visited the devastated mountainside village of Punta late yesterday, reported 16 more dead which would place the official count at 99.

　　The varying death tolls reflected the chaos that followed the destruction.

　　Lerias said Punta was a picture of mayhem, with more than half of its 83 houses either destroyed or buried under huge mounds of earth, debris and coconut trees.

　　"There was mud all over, you couldn't see anything but rooftops with the houses submerged in mud. There's debris, wood, old clothes, kitchen utensils strewn all around ... In one spot they dug up the hand of a child," Lerias said.

　　Rescuers have so far found 49 bodies in Punta, which had about 360 residents, she said.

　　There were some miraculous survival stories.

　　Lerias said an 89-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl were dug up alive after being buried late on Friday. They appeared to have survived thanks to an air pocket.

　　But rescue efforts were bogged down by inclement weather. Lerias said her boat had to turn back because of huge waves.

　　"We're still conducting search, rescue and retrieval operations," said Rosales of the National Disaster Coordination Center.

　　Asked about the prospects of finding alive those missing since the slides and waves struck late on Friday, he replied: "We're still hoping."

　　Army troops, police and civilian volunteers were helping, and military helicopters were waiting for the weather to clear enough for them to fly to hard-hit villages, Rosales said.

　　President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said she has asked Washington to send in Chinook helicopters, an all-weather troop and cargo carrier. The Chinooks would come from a US military base in Okinawa, Japan, she told reporters, adding they may arrive in a couple of days.

　　Television images and pictures of what could be the country's worst disaster this year were grotesque: One showed a mud-splattered man desperately trying to dig out a body with a crowbar while a companion tried to pull the cadaver from the muck with his hands. An elderly woman, who lost most of her loved ones, wept and said she wished she also had perished. Rescuers described digging up bodies of whole families buried together, including a mother embracing her children.