Sunday, February 19, 2006
Survivors struggle with guilt, as disaster shatters families
By Dennes R. Tabar
GUINSAUGON, Southern Leyte -- Waist-deep in mud, Mira Inso struggled to hold her one-year-old son aloft long enough for a passing stranger to save him. When the stranger came back for her, she was nowhere in sight.
Now, Anthony Inso, 23, waits for word of his wife's condition, while he watches over their son, his namesake, at the Anahawan District Hospital.
Inso was away from home when one face of Mount Can-abag collapsed, and returned to find his village and his family gone.
After four frantic hours Inso found his son in the hospital but his wife and relatives were still missing.
Michael Labador, 29, has a different story to tell. He had left the family's home in Consolacion, Cebu to tend to his wife's small farm in Barangay Guinsaugon, St. Bernard town.
Feeling homesick, he asked his wife and child to join him in Leyte. Now his child is dead and the wife, missing.
It is doubtful if any families survived the disaster intact, and even the local leadership has been wiped out.
Guinsaugon Barangay Captain Absalon Libaton is feared dead, as are his family, four councilors, the barangay treasurer, the barangay secretary and the Sangguniang Kabataan.
St. Bernard Mayor Maria Lim would have gone to Guinsaugon early Friday morning, but was summoned to a meeting by Southern Leyte Governor Rosette Lerias. That meeting probably saved her life. (Sun.Star Cebu)
(February 19, 2006 issue)
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11 villages cleared as landslide risk persists