Mudslide: 913 still missing
2006-02-20 08:04
Guinsaugon - Hunting for
bodies and burying the dead resumed in the central Philippines
on Monday, with rescuers holding out little hope for survivors
in a village of 1 800 entombed by a collapsed mountainside.
Battling deep, shifting mud and steady rain, search teams
continued to focus on a school packed with more than 250
children and staff when Friday's landslide engulfed Guinsaugon,
a farming community in Southern Leyte province.
"They can see the roof but so far there is no sign of
life," Congressman Roger Mercado told Reuters on Monday.
Unconfirmed reports that some pupils sent desperate mobile
phone text messages on Friday had spurred on rescuers. But now
hope has all but disappeared.
The National Disaster Co-ordinating Council said 72 bodies
had been pulled from the mud, with 913 villagers still missing.
Bloated and decomposing, 50 recovered bodies were buried on
Sunday in mass graves sprinkled with holy water and lime powder
- a measure Health Secretary Francisco Duque said was
necessary to prevent disease from spreading in the hot, fetid
conditions.
"They are being buried in such a way that they can be
exhumed later," Duque told Reuters.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo viewed relief goods and
dog teams being flown from a military airbase in Manila on
Monday. She plans to visit the scene of the disaster, about 675km southeast of Manila, on Wednesday or Thursday.
International agencies have also sent supplies, but many of
the emergency goods must be trucked to the area on bad roads
and around washed-out bridges.
Although the president had pledged to recover all of the
bodies for burial, Mercado said a decision was likely within
days about closing off the devastated area.
"We will put up a memorial symbol and we will say holy mass
for the bereaved victims of the landslide," he said.
In hospital, survivors told of jumping from roofs to escape
the torrent of mud, which was set off by two weeks of heavy
rain. One six-year-old girl survived by clinging to a coconut
tree.
More landslides
The Philippines is usually hit by about 20 typhoons each
year, with residents and environmental groups often blaming
illegal logging or mining for compounding the damage.
But in a country where most of the 86 million people are
Roman Catholic, commentators, officials and even survivors said
the landslide was God's will.
In Guinsaugon, hundreds of rescuers, backed by US marines
sent from annual exercises with Philippine troops, were warned
to tread gingerly or risk sinking to their deaths.
With little evidence of where the village once stood,
search teams relied on sketches from survivors to pinpoint the
school and other buildings.
"It's a total disaster, just horrendous," said Lieutenant
Joel Coots, a medical officer with the US Marines.
- Reuters