1,800 Feared Killed by Landslide in Philippine Village

[Snowden]

[font=Georgia][font=Georgia]1,800 Feared Killed by Landslide in Philippine Village By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


Published: February 18, 2006

GUINSAUGON, Philippines, Saturday, Feb. 18 (AP) — The village of Guinsaugon disappeared Friday. So did nearly every man, woman and child who lived in this eastern Philippines farming community of 1,857 people.

The New York Times

Only a few jumbles of corrugated steel sheeting, sticking up from 30 feet of sludge, indicate Guinsaugon ever existed.
On Saturday morning, 24 hours after a landslide sent a wall of mud and boulders tumbling down a mountain and over the village at a terrifying speed, rescue workers held little hope of finding more survivors. Only 57 have been found out of a population of 1,857.
"We presume that more or less that 1,800 are feared dead," Lt. Col. Raul Farnacio, the top military officer at the scene, said as search efforts resumed after being suspended for the night. A drenching rain and high winds made the task even more miserable.
At least 24 bodies have been pulled from the mud, and a child who was rescued died overnight from head injuries.
The search was focusing on an elementary school, amid unconfirmed reports that relatives of the 250 children and teachers had received cellphone text messages from survivors. Only one girl and a woman had been rescued alive nearby.
Many blamed the 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 the 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 had been.
Colonel 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 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 Mr. Elmosora, his eyes bloodshot and his face grief-stricken. "I've not eaten since this thing happened."
The landslide left Guinsaugon, which is on the southern part of Leyte island, looking like a giant patch of newly plowed land, with only a few jumbles of corrugated steel sheeting left to suggest something else had been there.
"Our village is gone; everything was buried in mud," Eugene Pilo, who lost his family, told local reporters 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 the radio station. "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 television shots showed a wide swath of mud alongside stretches of green rice paddies at the foothills of the scarred mountain.[/quote]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/18/international/asia/18philippines.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

[Woodmonkey]

Tragic.

[conlor]

Yes, it's tragic. What a horrible way to die! We can still hope that maybe a few might have survived and that they're found in time.