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Friday, February 24, 2006
Rescuers step up search at landslide site (10:35 a.m.)
GUINSAUGON -- Rescue workers took advantage of clearing skies, launching their biggest operation so far at the site of a village that was buried by a landslide a week ago, the US military said Friday.
Hundreds of US Marines and other rescue workers were digging with picks and shovels in the mud covering the farming village of Guinsaugon, said US Navy Cmdr. Manuel Biadog, a Filipino-American chaplain assigned to Marines based in Okinawa, Japan.
"Today's operation is the biggest so far," Biadog said. "Right now, it's old-fashioned digging because the ground is so soft."
He said better weather after days of heavy rain had allowed workers to step up their efforts, but said they were not using a earthmover and other heavy equipment because the ground was too unstable and more landslides were feared.
"We are concerned that an area at the top of the mountain is receding," Biadog said. Helicopters were on standby to pull out any endangered diggers. Lt. Col. Raul Farnacio said 400 to 500 diggers were at the site.
Recovery teams acknowledged that the likelihood of more trapped survivors of the disaster in the southeastern Philippines was remote. No survivors have been found in the farming village of Guinsaugon since hours after it was buried Feb. 17 in mud up to 35 meters (100 feet) deep. The official death toll stood at 129 with another 938 missing.
"We all don't have much hope, but we are not giving up yet," said Benjamin Hong, head of a Taiwanese group of rescue workers.
The teams planned to check what is believed to be the roof of an elementary school that has been the focus of search efforts. It was spotted in aerial photographs far from what was believed to have been its original site. Rescue workers, who were forced off the disaster zone by heavy rains Thursday, planned to try to reach the roof on Friday after a former resident was brought in to confirm that it came from the school, provincial Governor Rosette Lerias said.
"This is the first time we've seen the green roof of a building that resembles very much the green roof of the elementary school that we've been looking for," Lerias said Thursday.
"It moved some 300 meters (yards) away. It's the same place that they found some notebooks, religious texts and also some pictures."
The school was the target of the rescue efforts from the start because of unconfirmed reports that survivors had sent mobile phone text messages from inside shortly after the landslide.
Officials have speculated that the wall of mud, boulders and trees from the collapse of a nearby mountainside could have swept the school away. More than 240 students and teachers were inside.
The area where the roof was found hasn't been explored because the mud is so wet. Rescue workers headed to the area Friday despite the risks involved. Pockets of water on what's left of the mountain could cause more landslides.
Much of the mud throughout the 40-hectare (100-acre) landslide zone remains unsettled, especially after the continued rains.
The dangers were underscored Thursday when a group of rescue workers had to be rescued after getting stuck while trying to extricate a body. (AP) |
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