The stench of death hung over a village of 1,800 people in the central Philippines today, a day after a torrent of mud and rock from a rain-soaked mountainside engulfed homes and a crowded school.
Only 46 bodies and 57 survivors had been pulled from the reddish soil, with the chances "very, very slim" of anyone else being found alive, said Colonel Raul Farnacio, in charge of the army's relief operations.
"We have two generators. We will try to work round the clock but our men have to rest too," he said.
Yesterday's disaster, as more than 200 children and their mothers celebrated women's day at the school, buried Guinsaugon, a farming village about 675 km (420 miles) southeast of Manila.
Lacking heavy equipment, about 300 rescuers must contend with deep, shifting mud and an unstable mountainside.
Apart from some iron sheeting, other debris and a lone hut, there was little evidence a village once stood on the site.
A British man identified as Rebor White, 53, a resident of the area with his Filipino wife, was among those killed, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said.
The British embassy in Manila said it could not confirm details until the next of kin was notified.
The government and international agencies were sending water, medicine and other supplies by air and sea, but many of the relief goods must be trucked to the devastated area on bad roads and around washed-out bridges after weeks of steady rain.
"We cannot do anything any more," Christopher Libaton, one of the survivors, said on television. "We just have to accept what happened to us."
Two groups of soldiers, wary of the soft ground, tried in vain to reach the school today.
"They had to withdraw. They couldn't enter," said Rosette Lerias, governor of Southern Leyte province. "We are continuing with our operations. We have not lost hope."
The Philippines is hit by about 20 typhoons each year, with residents and environmental groups often blaming illegal logging or mining for making natural disasters worse.
A series of storms in late 2004 left about 1,800 people dead or presumed dead northeast of Manila. On Leyte island in 1991, more than 5,000 died in floods triggered by a typhoon.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo gathered all state agencies involved in disaster operations and said her priorities were to rescue the living, recover the dead and rebuild the community.