Typhoon death toll at 80 in Philippines; rescuers reach stricken ferry, only 3 survivors found

The death toll included 59 people who drowned in the central province of Iloilo, with another 40 missing, Gov. Neil Tupaz said.

"Almost all the towns are covered by water. It's like an ocean," Tupaz said, adding thousands have been displaced in the province that is home to 1.7 million people.

TV footage showed rescuers holding on to a long rope strewn across raging floodwaters in an Iloilo village to pluck three residents trapped on top of a partly engulfed van. In a nearby village, residents pulled out a body from a muddy field then laid it beside another they found earlier.

Villagers found four bodies, children's slippers and life jackets that washed ashore Sunday near the stalled MV Princess of Stars. Port captain Nestor Ponteres said the ferry's owner, Sulpicio Lines, had lost radio contact with the ship and the fate of its passengers was unknown.

A rescue ship reached the site after battling huge waves and strong winds but found no other survivors. "They haven't seen anyone. They're scouring the area. They're studying the direction of the waves to determine where survivors may have drifted," coast guard spokesman Lt. Senior Grade Arman Balilo said.

The dead, including a man and a woman who bound themselves together, were believed to have been on the vessel, which initially ran aground a few miles (kilometers) off central Sibuyan island Saturday, then capsized, said Mayor Nanette Tansingco of San Fernando on Sibuyan island.

At least three survivors from the ferry were found in Sibuyan's Mabini village and police were ordered to go there. But all the roads to the village, where many houses were washed away by huge waves, were blocked by toppled trees, Tansingco told DZBB radio.

She appealed for food, medicine and formalin, apparently expecting many deaths in her town. The upturned ferry, its bow jutting out of the water, could be seen from her town, she said.

The typhoon lashed the central Philippines for about four hours Saturday, setting off landslides and floods, knocking out power and blowing off roofs.

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