Phillippines ? The ash and boulders had been building up since an eruption in July, high on the slopes of the Mayon volcano. Typhoon Durian’s blasts of wind and drenching rain raked it all down in a deadly black wall of debris.

For nearly three hours Thursday afternoon, mudslides ripped through Mayon’s gullies, uprooting trees, flattening houses and engulfing people. Entire hamlets were swamped in Mayon, on northern Luzon island.

Some 208 people were killed – most in mudslides on Mayon – and 261 were missing, the national Office of Civil Defense reported late Friday. Another 82 were injured.

With power and phone lines down, it took until Friday morning, when the first flights managed to survey the area, for the scope of the devastation to emerge.

Bodies were wrapped in blankets and slung on bamboo poles to be carried to trucks, then covered with coconut leaves and transferred to makeshift morgues.