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Sunday, February 19, 2006
11 villages cleared as landslide risk persists
GUINSAUGON, Southern Leyte -- Efforts to find more survivors proved in vain Saturday, as rescue workers plodded their way through a 40-hectare stretch of mud following a massive landslide.
Desperate pleas were sent Friday night through text messages from teachers and students trapped in their schoolrooms under the wiped-out village of Guinsaugon. But they have not been heard from since.
Officials, worried about a repeat of the disaster, evacuated at least 11 villages in the same area.
Half a mountain came crashing down on Guinsaugon at 10:45 a.m. Friday, after two weeks of torrential downpours and about nine minutes after a mild quake.
Only 57 survivors have been plucked from the mud Saturday from Guinsaugon's population of 1,857. At least 56 bodies have been found, and a child who originally survived died overnight from head injuries.
However, figures for the missing varied considerably, with two local officials estimating the number from 1,800 up to 3,000. There were no up-to-date figures for the population of the village.
"They're not finding anyone alive anymore," Eulogio Dala, municipal assessor of St. Bernard town, which covers Guinsaugon, said.
"We had 30 villages before, now we only have 29. One was removed from the map," Dala said.
Bad weather
The military said there was a "hairline chance" that people could still be rescued, but the Air Force suspended operations by late afternoon due to bad weather.
A major domestic and international relief and rescue operation is under way.
Much of the day's efforts were focused on a swamped elementary school, with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo citing unconfirmed reports that some of the 250 students and teachers sent cell phone text messages to relatives that they had survived.
"We're still in one room, alive," read one message, which was sent to Pamela Tiempo, whose mother is among the teachers stuck under the mire.
"We are alive. Dig us out," read another. The messages stopped coming shortly after 7 p.m. last Friday.
Cornelio Solis of the health department said attempts to dig down to the school were hampered by boulders "as big as houses."
He said workers were using their bare hands and shovels.
Sixty soldiers were dispatched to the scene in the morning, but found nothing before they were forced to give up for the night.
Hazardous
Sniffer dogs were to be brought today in a final effort to find life in the school.
Southern Leyte Governor Rosette Lerias said she was hoping for a miracle but that no official had been able to confirm any messages had been sent from the mud-covered school.
The search was complicated by heavy morning downpours, the threat that the adjacent mountain remained unstable and the possibility that 752 troops, firefighters and volunteers could get sucked down into the soft, shifting mud.
The situation was so dangerous that most would-be volunteers were kept out of the area, and a no-fly zone was established over the site because of fears that helicopters' downwash could set off a fresh landslide.
Weather forecasts said a low-pressure area over the Pacific Ocean about 900 kilometers southeast of Leyte was likely to generate rain over the landslide zone today before the weather improves.
Survivors had a tough time figuring out where houses used to be. Sketches of what the village used to look like didn't help much.
No bearings
"It's hard to find the houses now," said Eunerio Bagaipo, a 42-year-old farmer who lost two brothers, almost 20 nieces and nephews and a number of in-laws. "There is nothing now, just earth and mud."
Eleven nearby villages were evacuated, said Governor Lerias. The area, which is prone to landslides and flooding, has been drenched by 68 centimeters (27 inches) of rain over the last two weeks.
Lieutenant Colonel Raul Farnacio, the highest-ranking military officer at the scene, estimated nearly every man, woman and child died in Guinsaugon.
Farnacio said troops only were digging where they saw clear evidence of bodies.
"We can only focus on the surface; we cannot go too deep," he said.
The wide swath of mud sat amid stretches of rice paddies at the foothills of the now-scarred mountain, where survivors blamed illegal logging for contributing to the disaster. (AP/AFP/Sunnex)
(February 19, 2006 issue)
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