Landslide leaves 1,500 missing, feared dead
At least 23 bodies were recovered, but 1,500 people were missing, feared dead.
The farming village of Guinsaugon on Leyte island, 420 miles south-east of Manila, was virtually wiped out, with only jumbles of corrugated steel sheeting left to show the 2,500-strong community ever existed.
“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.”
Southern Leyte province governor Rosette Lerias said: “There are no signs of life, no rooftops, no nothing.”
Two other villages were inundated, and about 3,000 evacuees were seeking shelter 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 places - and unstable that rescue workers had difficulty approaching the school, which was in session when the landslide occurred between 9am and 10am local time (1am and 2am Irish time).
The school had 246 students and seven teachers. Only one child and one adult had been recovered.
About 100 people were visiting the village for a women’s group meeting.
The Philippine army and air force and the Red Cross were on the scene but search-and-rescue efforts were called off at nightfall, Ms Lerias said. She asked for people to dig by hand, saying the mud was too soft for heavy equipment.
“Help is on the way,” President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said in televised remarks. “It will come from land, sea and air.”
Senator Richard Gordon, head of the Philippine Red Cross, issued the casualty estimates and made an international appeal for aid.
There appeared to be little hope for finding many survivors, and only 53 were extricated from the mud before darkness halted rescue efforts, officials said.
“I have a glimmer of hope, based on the rule of thumb - within 24 hours you can still find survivors,” Ms Lerias said. “After that, you move on to the recovery phase, but right now it’s still rescue mode.”
Aerial TV footage showed a wide swath of mud amid stretches of rice paddies at the foothills of the now-scarred mountain, where survivors blamed illegal logging for contributing to the disaster.
A small earthquake also shook the area, but scientists said it occurred after the landslide and likely was unrelated. Flash floods also were inundating the area, and the rumble of a secondary landslide sent rescuers scurrying for safety.
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. Other survivors were piled onto heavy construction equipment and driven to safety.
Volunteers from nearby provinces were quickly being joined by troops being ferried in by helicopter, with more en route by sea.
Army captain Edmund Abella said he and about 30 soldiers from his unit were soaking wet from wading through waist-deep mud.
“The people said the ground suddenly shook, then a part of the mountain collapsed onto the village,” Capt Abella said. “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 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.”
While the official death toll was only 23, Ms Lerias said 375 houses in Guinsaugon were feared buried after. The village had 1,857 registered residents, she said.
“The ground has really been soaked because of the rain,” Ms Lerias said. “The trees were sliding down upright with the mud.”
Ms Lerias said many people had evacuated the area last week due to the threat of landslides but started returning home during increasingly sunny days.
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