Roof of landslide school 'spotted'

Aerial photographs spotted what is believed to be the roof of a Philippines elementary school swamped by a landslide, and rescue workers will undertake a risky mission to check it, the provincial governor said today.

The roof was spotted far from what was believed to have been its original site.

Rescue workers, who were forced off the disaster zone by heavy rains this morning, planned to try to reach the roof tomorrow after a former resident is brought in to confirm that it came from the school, provincial Governor Rosette Lerias told a news conference.

“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.

“It moved some 300 yards away. It’s the same place that they found some notebooks, religious texts and also some pictures.”

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

No one was talking about a miracle, not after earlier hopes were dashed when sounds detected underground at a different site late on Monday yielded no further signs of life.

The school was the target of the rescue efforts from the start because of unconfirmed reports that survivors had sent mobile phone text messages from inside shortly after the landslide.

No photos of the school are available, but Lerias said officials believe the roof came from the building because of its colour and elongated shape.

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. Rescue workers will head to the area early tomorrow despite the risks involved, which include pockets of water on what’s left of the mountain that could cause more landslides.

Special watchers will monitor the mountain, and rescue workers will carry communications gear.

Preparations are being put in place to evacuate them 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 Major General 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 in the day when a group of rescue workers had to be rescued after getting stuck while trying to extricate a body.

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

A team of Taiwanese disaster experts has been trying to find survivors with sound-detecting gear. Instead, they had to literally be pulled out.

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

“The choppers started sinking in the mud, so 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.

The rain and low clouds then shut down the air operation of the Philippine military helicopters but the US military helicopters continued to fly.

About 65 US 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 Marines have started to build a road towards the site of the elementary school to allow heavy equipment to reach the area.

With the prospect of finding anyone else shrinking by the hour, there has been talk of calling off rescue efforts. A group of 33 firefighters from nearby Cebu, who have been digging every day, said they likely would head home tomorrow.

The rain also hampered rescue teams with sniffer dogs and sound detectors as they combed other parts of the muddy swamp that was once Guinsaugon.