Landslide buries homes, school in Philippines

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Landslide buries homes, school in Philippines
23 confirmed dead; Red Cross estimates 1,500 missing on Leyte island

MANILA, Philippines - Hundreds of villagers were feared dead after a rain-soaked mountainside disintegrated into a torrent of mud, swallowing hundreds of houses and an elementary school in the eastern Philippines on Friday. Twenty-three people were confirmed dead, and at least 1,500 were missing.

“It sounded like the mountain exploded, and the whole thing crumbled,” survivor Dario Libatan told Manila radio DZMM. “I could not see any house standing anymore.”

The farming village of Guinsaugon on Leyte island, 420 miles southeast of Manila, was virtually wiped out, with only a few jumbles of corrugated steel sheeting left to show that the community of some 2,500 people ever existed.

Two other villages also were affected, and about 3,000 evacuees were at a municipal hall.

“We did not find injured people,” said Ricky Estela, a crewman on a helicopter that flew a politician to the scene. “Most of them are dead and beneath the mud.”

The mud was so deep — up to 30 feet in some places — and unstable that rescue workers had difficulty approaching the school. Education officials said 200 students, six teachers and the principal were believed to have been there.

Digging suspended
By nightfall, relief flights and digging were suspended because of darkness and continued danger.

“The troops pulled out because big boulders are cascading down the mountain,” said Colonel Raul Farnacio, in charge of the military’s relief operations.

“Rescuers are scared because they can still hear the mountain rumbling,” added Maria Lim, the mayor of Saint Bernard town.

Sen. Richard Gordon, head of the Philippine Red Cross, said 1,500 people were missing.

The provincial governor asked for people to dig by hand, saying the mud was too soft for heavy equipment.

The U.S. embassy said a Navy vessel, in the Philippines for annual military exercises, would help with the rescue efforts.

Few rescued from mud
There appeared to be little hope for finding many survivors, and only about three dozen were extricated from the brown morass before dark halted rescue efforts for the night.

It was like the whole village was wiped out,” said Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Restituto Padilla.

Aerial TV footage showed a wide swath of mud amid stretches of rice paddies at the foothills of the scarred mountain.

Congressman Roger Mercado said residents had been advised to leave the village after weeks of heavy rain but he laid some of the blame on mining and logging in the area three decades ago.

“They would not evacuate,” he said. “This is the effect of the logging before. Every time it rains there are flashfloods.”

Rescue workers dug with shovels for signs of survivors, and put a child on a stretcher, with little more than the girl’s eyes showing through a covering of mud.

“Let us all pray for those who perished and were affected by this tragedy,” President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said in a statement. “Help is on the way,” she promised survivors. “You will soon be out of harm’s way.”

Volunteers from nearby provinces were quickly joined by groups of troops being ferried in by helicopter, with more en route by sea.

‘We’re digging by hand’
Army Capt. Edmund Abella said he and about 30 soldiers from his unit were soaking wet from wading through mud up to their waists. Flash floods also were inundating the area, and the rumble of a secondary landslide sent rescuers scurrying for safety.

“The people said the ground suddenly shook, then a part of the mountain collapsed onto the village,” Abella told AP by cell phone. “Some houses were carried by the mudflow, some were destroyed and others were buried.

“It’s very difficult, we’re digging by hand, the place is so vast and the mud is so thick. When we try to walk, we get stuck in the mud.”

He said the troops had just rescued a 43-year-old woman.

“She was crying and looking for her three nephews, but they were nowhere to be found,” Abella said.

While the official death toll was only 18, Southern Leyte province Gov. Rosette Lerias told radio DZBB that 500 houses in Guinsaugon were feared buried after nonstop rains for two weeks.

Children were in class
An elementary school was in session when the landslide struck between 9 and 10 a.m., and about 100 people were visiting the village for a women’s group meeting.

“The ground has really been soaked because of the rain,” Lerias said of downpours blamed on the La Nina weather phenomenon. “The trees were sliding down upright with the mud.”

She said about half a square mile was covered in thick mud that remained unstable.


“Our communication line was cut because our people had to flee because the landslide appeared to be crawling,” Lerias said.

Lerias said many residents evacuated the area last week due to the threat of landslides or flooding, but had started returning home during increasingly sunny days, with the rains limited to evening downpours.

6,000 killed in 1991
In November 1991, about 6,000 people were killed on Leyte in floods and landslides triggered by a tropical storm. Another 133 people died in floods and mudslides there in December 2003.

Last weekend, seven road construction workers died in a landslide after falling into a 150-foot deep ravine in the mountain town of Sogod on Leyte.

Leyte island is also the site of the biggest naval battle in history, when U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur in 1944 fulfilled his famed vow “I shall return” and routed Japanese forces occupying the Philippines.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11400414/

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Hope fades for 1,800 caught in Philippine slide
Search for survivors resumes; 11 nearby villages evacuated

GUINSAUGON, Philippines - Rescue workers searched a sea of mud in vain Saturday for survivors of a landslide that killed up to 1,800 people. People fled nearby villages, heeding warnings that the disaster threatened to repeat itself.

Two U.S. warships and 1,000 Marines steamed toward the disaster scene on Leyte island in the eastern Philippines. They were expected to arrive early Sunday.

Eleven villages were evacuated, all in the area of what used to be Guinsaugon. The farming community was wiped out Friday when half a mountain came crashing down after two weeks of torrential rain.

Rosette Leria, governor of Southern Leyte province, said all of the communities have characteristics similar to those in Guinsaugon.

She said residents were being relocated to seven evacuation centers.

"We asked them to leave yesterday," Leria said. "I had some of the villages checked again today because some people didn't want to leave their homes."

Hopes faded for finding anyone else alive in the 100-acre stretch of mud that was 30 feet deep in places. Only 57 people had been rescued — none so far Saturday — out of a population of 1,857. At least 43 bodies had been found, and a child who originally survived died overnight from head injuries.

Lt. Col. Raul Farnacio, the highest-ranking military officer at the scene, estimated the death toll at about 1,800.

“We presume that more or less that 1,800 are feared dead,” a grim Farnacio said as search efforts resumed Saturday in a drenching rain and high winds that made the task even more miserable.

Only 57 survivors have been found — none so far Saturday — out of a population of 1,857. At least 24 bodies have been pulled from the mud, and a child who was rescued died overnight from head injuries.

Text messages from survivors?
The search was focusing Saturday on an elementary school amid unconfirmed reports that relatives of the 250 children and teachers had received mobile phone text messages from survivors. Only one girl and a woman had been rescued alive nearby.

Many blamed persistent rains and illegal logging in Guinsaugon, about 400 miles east of the capital, Manila.

The logging “stopped around 10 years ago,” Roger Mercado, a member of Congress who represents the area, told Manila radio station DZBB. “But this is the effect of the logging in the past.”

Soldiers were being shuttled to the disaster zone in the shovels of bulldozers that carried them across a shallow stream. They were given sketches of the village so they could figure out approximately where the houses used to be.

Farnacio said the troops were digging only where they saw clear evidence of bodies because of the danger that the soft, unstable mud could shift and claim new victims.

“We can only focus on the surface,” he said. “We cannot go too deep.”

Low clouds hung over the area, obscuring the mountain that disintegrated Friday morning after two weeks of heavy rains, covering the village’s 375 homes and elementary school. Rescue workers trudged slowly through the sludge, stretchers and ambulances waiting for survivors or the bodies of victims.

Joining them was Dionisio Elmosora, a 42-year-old farmer who was looking for his wife and two sons.

“What’s important is for me to find them even if they’re dead,” said Elmosora, his eyes bloodshot and his face grief-stricken. “I’ve not eaten since this thing happened.”

Our village is gone’
The landslide left Guinsaugon, which is on the southern part of Leyte island, looking like a giant patch of newly plowed land. Only a few jumbles of corrugated steel sheeting indicate Guinsaugon ever existed.

“Our village is gone, everything was buried in mud,” Eugene Pilo, who lost his family, told local media on Friday. “All the people are gone.”

“It sounded like the mountain exploded, and the whole thing crumbled,” Dario Libatan, who lost his wife and three children, told DZMM. “I could not see any house standing anymore.”

A helicopter pilot, Leo Dimaala, estimated that half the mountain had collapsed Friday morning.

“We did not find injured people,” said Ricky Estela, a crewman on a helicopter that flew a politician to the scene. “Most of them are dead and beneath the mud.”

Aerial TV footage showed a wide swath of mud alongside stretches of green rice paddies at the foothills of the scarred mountain.

Pat Vendetti, of the Greenpeace environmental action group, said that that although logging is illegal in the Philippines, a combination of poor governance and corruption has hampered enforcement of the law.

“There were similar landslides at the end of 2004 and the end of 2003, both directly linked to illegal logging on land above villages, and both in the Philippines,” said Vendetti.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies blamed a combination of the weather and the type of trees prevalent in the area.

“The remote coastal area of southern Leyte ... is heavily forested with coconut trees,” the Red Cross said from Geneva. “They have shallow roots, which can be easily dislodged after heavy rains, causing the land to become unstable.”

Many evacuated residents returned
Southern Leyte province Gov. Rosette Lerias said many residents evacuated the area last week because of the threat of landslides or flooding, but had started returning home during increasingly sunny days, with the rains limited to evening downpours.

Even before the landslide, “trees were sliding down upright with the mud,” Lerias said.

Army Capt. Edmund Abella said he and about 30 soldiers were wading through waist-deep mud.

“It’s very difficult, we’re digging by hand, the place is so vast and the mud is so thick,” Abella told The Associated Press by cell phone. “When we try to walk, we get stuck in the mud.”

He said the troops had just rescued a 43-year-old woman who “was crying and looking for her three nephews, but they were nowhere to be found.”

‘Help is on the way’
Abella called the conditions extremely hazardous.

“A few minutes ago, mounds of earth came down from the mountain again with the rain and rescuers ran away to safety,” Abella said.

“Help is on the way,” President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said in televised remarks. “It will come from land, sea and air.”

The international Red Cross launched an emergency appeal for $1.5 million for relief operations.

The U.S. dispatched two warships carrying 17 helicopters and 1,000 Marines to assist in search and rescue efforts, officials said Saturday.

U.S. Charge d’Affaires Paul Jones said the USS Essex and the USS Harper’s Ferry were expected to reach Southern Leyte province at daybreak Sunday.

The ships and nearly 6,000 U.S. military personnel were in the Philippines for joint military exercises, called Balikatan, starting Monday.

The two ships are also carrying thousands of gallons of water purification equipment, generators and blankets, he told a meeting on the disaster attended by Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and various government officials.

Jones said the U.S. government also has turned over $100,000 worth of disaster equipment to the Philippine Red Cross, while thousands of blankets, jugs of water and plastic sheeting were expected to be handed over Sunday.

Friday’s disaster was preceded by another deadly slide in the region. Last weekend, seven road construction workers died in a landslide after falling into a 150-foot deep ravine in the mountain town of Sogod on Leyte.

In 1991, about 6,000 people were killed on Leyte in floods and landslides triggered by a tropical storm. Another 133 people died in floods and mudslides there in 2003.

In 1944, the waters off Leyte island became the scene of the biggest naval battle in history, when U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur fulfilled his famed vow “I shall return” and routed Japanese forces occupying the Philippines.

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11400414/

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'Signs of life' at site of buried Philippine school

Official says ‘faint, rhythmic tapping’ heard; 1,000 feared dead in mudslide

GUINSAUGON, Philippines - High-tech gear detected “signs of life” Monday at the site of an elementary school buried under up to 100 feet of mud that swept down a hillside soaked by rain in the eastern Philippines, the provincial governor said.

Sounds of scratching and a rhythmic tapping were picked up by seismic sensors and sound-detection gear brought in by U.S. and Malaysian forces, said South Leyte Gov. Rosette Lerias. Generator-powered lights were set up to allow teams of rescue workers to dig through the sludge during the night.

Lerias said rescuers picked up “a faint, rhythmic tapping” at 5 p.m.

Two hours later, “We received news that there was increased positive signs of life. To me, that’s more than enough reason to smile and be happy. The adrenaline is high as far as people are concerned,” Lerias said.

Many people trapped inside?
The search for survivors in the farming village of Guinsaugon had focused on the school because of unconfirmed reports that some of the 250-300 children and teachers believed trapped inside may have sent cell phone text messages to relatives soon after Friday’s disaster.

U.S. Marines digging at the site found bodies but no survivors by Monday night, Marine Capt. Burrell Parmer said at the site.

The death toll is expected to be as high as 1,000 after earth, boulders and trees thundered down a rain-drenched mountain. A few survivors were pulled out in the first hours after the disaster.

“There is a lot of rubble, a lot of large boulders,” Parmer said. “On some sides near the river, it’s very moist, very soft soil, and you can get stuck up to your heels and your waistline if you’re not careful.”

'We have a sound'
Rescuers said the noises might have come from shifting and settling mud covering the school. But the discovery offered a glimmer of hope to rescuers who had all but abandoned expectations of finding anyone alive.

“We know there’s something down there,” said U.S. Marine Lt. Richard Neikirk, pointing to a spot under a big boulder, where seismic sensors detected sounds. “The farther down we went, the signals grew stronger.”

A Malaysian team using sound-detection gear picked up noises, too.

“We have a sound,” said Sahar Yunos of the Malaysia Disaster and Rescue Team. “Knocking, something like that.”

Workers were digging in two places. One — where the sounds were heard — is believed to be the original site of the school, close to the mountain that collapsed. The other is 200 yards down the hill, where the landslide could have carried the building.

There was no visible sign of the school, believed to be under some 115 feet of muck. Philippine Lt. Col. Raul Farnacio said teams had dug about half way down.

Dozens of U.S. Marines and Philippine soldiers, along with local miners, were digging in a watery spot, using shovels on the muck and moving it with body bags, while draining the murky fluid with large water bottles.

They deployed nine seismic sensors that can detect vibrations underground. With everyone standing still, one man used a steel bar to hit on a rock several times and waited for any kind of response from beneath the mud.

Four sensors detected some noise or vibration, but the men could not tell what it was. Rescuers radioed for water pumps and floodlights to keep working through the night.

A 15-man Malaysian team using sensor gear called Delsar employed similar techniques. Five Taiwanese, who brought heat-sensing equipment, were also checking for signs of life. A rescue dog stopped three times at one spot near the digging.

International pledges pour in
In new international pledges of aid, South Korea said it would send $1 million, and New Zealand promised to give $133,000. Australia offered engineers to help assess the damage.

Rescuers have pulled out 76 bodies, but estimates varied on the number of survivors and people missing. Lerias said Monday that 928 were missing. National disaster officials in Manila said the number of missing was 1,350, including 246 schoolchildren. Official have reported between 20 to 57 survivors.

There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancies.

The search has been a painstaking process slowed by rain, shifting earth and fears of fresh landslides. Officials discussed turning the farming town of Guinsaugon into a massive cemetery, similar to other Asian areas ravaged by the 2004 tsunami.

Trapped survivors of past landslides or earthquakes have sometimes held out for days, communicating with search parties by calling out or tapping on rocks.

But hopes of finding people alive in Guinsaugon have seemed remote because the village was inundated by a dense wall of mud and rock, making it unlikely that many air pockets would form beneath the sodden surface.

Spain’s canine association sent three dogs to join those already at the scene.

With no one left to claim the dead and bodies quickly starting to decompose in the tropical heat, victims were being buried in mass graves.

On Sunday, a Roman Catholic priest sprinkled holy water on 30 bodies laying side by side in a mass grave, some wrapped in bags, others in cheap wooden coffins, then said a prayer through a mask worn to filter out the stench.

The only witnesses were local health officials, the provincial governor, some of her staff and a few nearby residents. None knew the victims.

Two shiploads of U.S. Marines, diverted from joint military exercises elsewhere in the Philippines, joined rescue efforts Sunday. Helicopters ferried men and supplies to the site, and Marines surveyed roads and bridges to see if they could support the weight of heavy military vehicles and equipment.

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11400414/

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Roof of Philippines school believed found
Rescue workers to attempt risky dig-out of building, officials say

GUINSAUGON, Philippines - Aerial photographs showed what is believed to be the green roof of an elementary school swamped by a landslide, but it was far from its original site, the provincial governor said Thursday.

The search for survivors has focused on the school largely because of unconfirmed reports that students and teachers trapped inside sent cell phone text messages to relatives shortly after the landslide last week.

Crews planned a risky mission to try to reach the roof on Friday after a former resident is brought in to confirm that it came from the school, provincial Gov. Rosette Lerias told reporters.

Rescue efforts, meanwhile, lasted only a few hours Thursday before they were halted amid concerns that heavy rains could spark a new landslide. Several Taiwanese disaster experts were rescued by U.S. Marines after they started sinking in the mud and had to radio for help while trying to extricate a body.

No survivors have been found in the farming village of Guinsaugon since hours after it was buried in mud up to 100 feet deep last Friday. The official death toll stood at 129 with another 938 missing, Lerias said.

Swept away by mud?
Photos of the school were not available, but Lerias said officials believe the roof came from the building because of its color and elongated shape.

“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.

He said the roof was spotted more than 980 feet away from the original site of the school.

“It’s the same place that they found some notebooks, religious texts and also some pictures,” he said.

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.

Talk of a possible miracle was largely absent after earlier hopes were dashed when sounds detected underground at a different site late Monday yielded no further signs of life.

But rescue workers planned head to the area with communications gear early Friday despite the risks involved, including pockets of water on what’s left of the mountain that could cause more landslides.

'There is real danger'
Special monitors will watch the mountain and contingency plans were being put in place to evacuate the workers quickly if needed.

Much of the mud throughout the 100-acre landslide zone remains unsettled, especially after the continued rains.

“We know there is real danger,” Lerias said.

Philippine Maj. Gen. Bonifacio Ramos said water would be pumped out of the area, then a special team of highly qualified rescue workers would be airlifted to the spot.

The dangers were underscored earlier Thursday when a group of Taiwanese experts had to be rescued themselves after getting stuck while trying to extricate a body. The team had been searching for survivors with sound-detecting gear.

The incident contributed to the decision to suspend search efforts. Weary troops and volunteers trudged out or were airlifted by helicopter.

“The seven Taiwanese were pulling one body with a rope under heavy rain out of the mud,” said U.S. Marines spokesman Capt. 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.”

He said the Marines immediately dispatched CH-46 helicopters that landed near the Taiwanese but those also started sinking in the mud.

“They had to work fast,” Parmer said. “The Taiwanese refused to leave without the body and were dragging it with them.”

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.

Frustrating efforts
The rain and low clouds then shut down the air operation of the Philippine military helicopters, but the U.S. military helicopters continued to fly.

About 65 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.

Marine Lt. Patrick Lavoie said the U.S. forces have started to build a road toward the site of the elementary school so heavy equipment can reach the area.

With the prospect of finding anyone else shrinking by the hour, some suggested calling off rescue efforts. A group of 33 firefighters from nearby Cebu said they likely would head home Friday.

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11519811/

[Esther]

this is awful :( :( :(

[canoilers]

Thanks for the info on this horrible tragedy.