Friday, February 24, 2006
Buried school's roof sighted: governor
GUINSAUGON, Southern Leyte -- International rescue teams will focus their work Friday on the elementary school where about 250 children are buried, after aerial photos pinpointed the building's location Thursday.
Southern Leyte Governor Rosette Lerias said in a briefing Thursday night that the roof of the school was already sighted.
The school moved about 300 meters from its original site after it got swept away in the landslide that buried the entire barangay last Friday, said Roman Dioso of the Air Force 505 Search and Rescue.
Teams suspended their search for the school Thursday because heavy rains raised fears of more landslides. The Philippine Air Force grounded its helicopters because of bad weather, the military said.
Hillsides over the area where the school is believed to be buried could cave in at any time because of the wet conditions, Lt. Col. Raul Farnacio said.
The confirmed death toll in the landslide rose to 122, with officials fearing it could surpass 1,000.
Weary troops and volunteers trudged out or were airlifted by helicopter from the unstable 40-hectare mud field that covers Guinsaugon and its elementary school.
A team of Taiwanese disaster experts that have been trying to find survivors with sound-detecting gear were pulled out from the wasteland.
"The seven Taiwanese were pulling one body with a rope under heavy rain out of the mud," said US Marines spokesman Burrel Parmer. "They got stuck in the mud, then they radioed they need help, they can't get out, they're sinking in the mud."
Helicopters
He said the Marines immediately dispatched CH-46 helicopters that landed near the Taiwanese.
"The choppers started sinking in the mud, so they had to work fast," Parmer said.
"The Taiwanese refused to leave without the body and were dragging it with them," he added.
Benjamin Hong, a spokesman for the group, said the team was not in any immediate danger but it was getting "inconvenient and unsafe" and they could not leave the body to be carried away by the rushing mud water.
"Out of respect for the body, we had to take it," he said.
Six of the Taiwanese and one body were loaded onto the helicopters, which returned later to pick up the last member of the rescue team with a rope.
The rain and low clouds then shut down the air operation of the Philippine military helicopters but the US military helicopters continued to fly.
A Malaysian member of the Red Crescent Society, meanwhile, had to be airlifted by helicopter to Cebu after he developed complications from diabetes and hypertension.
Khairulnizam Ramli, 26, did not mention his health condition when he joined the mission in Southern Leyte. He was taken to the Chong Hua Hospital in Cebu City Thursday afternoon.
About 65 US Marines with picks and shovels already close to the school site had to turn back because a footbridge they had built across a small river was washed away overnight. A small group stayed behind to move rocks on which people could step on.
Marine Lieutenant Patrick Lavoie said the Marines have started to build a road toward the site of the elementary school to allow heavy equipment such as bulldozers to reach the area.
With no survivors found since hours after a mountainside on Leyte Island collapsed following two weeks of heavy rains, there was increasing talk of calling off rescue efforts.
A group of 33 firefighters from nearby Cebu, who have been digging every day, said they likely would head home Friday.
During the search on Wednesday, holes dug in the soft muck kept collapsing. Heavy rain forced troops and volunteers to call off work overnight.
Rescue workers have used thick blue rope from the Marines to mark off a large area that they believe to be the perimeter of the property where the school was located. The site was determined using a satellite map, a topographical map and layout of property boundaries. (AP/AFP/JECT of Superbalita)
(February 24, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
Arroyo to traders: Ignore destabilization attempts