GUINSAUGON, Philippines: Rescuers dug in vain yesterday for more survivors after an estimated 1,400 people were buried by a massive Philippine landslide, including some 200 schoolchildren trapped under the mud.
Desperate pleas were sent Friday night by text message from teachers and students sunk under the wiped-out village of Guinsaugon. But they have not been heard from since and only corpses were pulled out of the muck yesterday.
“They’re not finding anyone alive anymore,” Eulogio Dala, municipal assessor of the district which covers Guinsaugon, said.
“We had 30 villages before, now we only have 29. One was removed from the map,” Dala said.
The military said there was a “hairline chance” that people could still be rescued, but the air force suspended operations for the day by late afternoon due to bad weather.
Much of the day’s effort was focused on the tiny school, which was entombed with 206 elementary students and 40 teachers inside.
“We’re still in one room, alive,” read one message, which was sent to Pamela Tiempo, whose mother is among the teachers stuck under the mire.
“We are alive. Dig us out,” read another. The messages stopped coming shortly after 7pm (1100 GMT) Friday.
Cornelio Solis of the health department said attempts to dig down to the school were hampered by boulders “as big as houses”. He said workers were using their bare hands and shovels.
Heavy earth-moving equipment could not be used because of the mud, officials said. Arc lamps were brought in to let rescue teams work around the clock.
A massive wall of mud slammed into the village in the south of Leyte island on Friday morning, wiping out hundreds of homes and leaving hundreds if not thousands trapped.
In places the mud is thought to be 30m deep.
The scene is of utter devastation, with only crumpled tin roofing and the tops of some coconut palms visible above a sea of mud. The civil defence office in Manila said the landslide covered 9sq km.
Figures for the missing varied considerably, with two local officials estimating the number at up to 3,000. There were no up-to-date figures for the population of the village.
However, Adriano Fuego, director of civil defence operations in the area, said that 1,420 were missing.
Provincial governor Rosette Lerias said late yesterday that 42 bodies had been recovered. Earlier she said there had been 57 survivors — all pulled out Friday — but one, a child, died of cerebral hemorrhage.
Officials said a Briton was among the dead.
Survivors had harrowing stories to tell.
Anthony Enso, 23, cradled his one-year-old son, the youngest survivor, in the overcrowded hospital at nearby Anahawan.
Enso was away from home when one face of Mount Can-abag collapsed, and returned to find his village and his family gone.
After four frantic hours Enso found his son in the hospital but his wife and relatives were still missing. “I am just hoping my wife is alive ... life is very hard for us,” he said.
A major domestic and international relief and rescue operation was under way.
The international Red Cross appealed for $1.52mn in funds. Australia pledged $740,000 in immediate aid and the United States sent two military ships.
Thailand and Taiwan each pledged $100,000 in aid.
Two C-130 aircraft carrying search and rescue teams and 26,000 pounds of medical supplies left Manila for Leyte’s main city Tacloban early yesterday.
Several hundred residents of 11 surrounding hamlets have been moved for fear of more slides.
President Gloria Arroyo warned that the country could face more landslides amid forecasts of further heavy rain and promised to help threatened areas nationwide adopt safety precautions.
Experts say the area’s geology, heavy rainfall and deforestation may all have contributed to the tragedy.
Leyte, which sits on a geological fault, features narrow, flat coastal areas and a mountainous interior and is prone to landslides.
Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz said 500mm of rain had fallen in the area since February 1, nearly five times the average for the month.
Governor Lerias said many residents had evacuated after landslides earlier in the week killed more than 20 people in a nearby town. But many returned Friday because the rain had stopped and the sun had come out.-AFP
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