Mud slide in Phillipines

[Guest]

Gary

 

May Steve and I express our sincere condolences to the people of The Phillipines on the tragic loss of life cause by the recent mud slides

 

with respect

[mealybar]

Here here. Very saddening to hear of yet another natural disaster in such short time

[Guest]

Dreadful business. Surviving locals don't regard it as 'natural': already pointing the finger at deforestation and 'overlogging' as cause for the ground becoming destabilised.

 

Irrespective of cause, a really dreadful outcome.

 

 

[jimmy white]

sad   so  sad, can only pray that there may be survivers yet??

[Guest]

on the news just then there has been noise from what they think is the school

[Guest]

Thanks Gez, I'll put the news on now

[mobster]

thanks all for the sympathy. all we need now is prayers not only bec of what happened here in the philippines but rather for all in general. to have peace in the world. God is the way, the truth and the light..

 

 

best regards

 

gary

[jimmy white]

WELL SAID MOBSTER

[westy]

yes well said mobster

[westy]

Almost all feared dead in mudslide in Philippines

Only 57 survivors reported in disaster

 

LILOAN, Philippines — Rescuers struggling through soft, thick mud found bodies on Saturday but no more survivors of the mountain collapse that buried a southern Philippines town the day before, apparently killing almost all of its

1,800 residents.

 

Witnesses in Guinsaugon, about 14 miles from this small town and 400 miles south of Manila, said there was no longer any sign of the town — only what looked like a newly plowed field, with bits and pieces of roofing and debris from 375 destroyed homes sticking up through the mud.

 

Rescuers were having difficulty reaching Guinsaugon, on the island of Leyte, and when they arrived, they found their every effort hampered by the mud, which was at least 30 feet deep in some spots. Walking was nearly impossible, and bringing in heavy equipment to dig out survivors seemed out of the question.

 

"We presume that more or less than

 

1,800 are feared dead," said Lt. Col. Raul Farnacio, who was overseeing the rescue effort. The Associated Press reported that only 57 survivors and 55 bodies had been found out of a population listed as 1,857.

 

Farnacio said many more bodies had been found but that rescuers — who were feeling bodies under their feet as they slogged through the mud — were trying to focus on the living.

 

"There's just too many dead bodies," he said. "For now, we are just leaving the dead because our main concern is to recover the survivors if there are any. If you ask me, hopes are dimming."

 

One survivor, Alfredo Guab, 27, told the AP the inundation had taken no more than two minutes to bury the entire village.

 

Like other survivors, he said he heard what sounded like a loud explosion before the mud came cascading down.

 

The Philippine military dispatched trucks with medicine, rice and clothes provided by UNICEF and the U.S. Agency for International Development. In addition, several Navy vessels were bringing supplies, the U.S. Embassy said.

 

The International Red Cross began an emergency appeal for $1.5 million for relief operations, and China pledged $250,000 in cash and other emergency relief to the Philippines, the Chinese state media reported.

 

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said in a statement: "I call on each Filipino to pray for the victims and the survivors.

 

It breaks my heart to think of those precious schoolchildren whose innocence and hope have been so tragically snuffed out."

Officials said an immediate need at the scene was for drinking water, with wells buried or contaminated. The remoteness of the area was making it difficult for supplies to be delivered.

 

 

(STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS.)

 

 

Huge landslides and flash floods occur frequently in the Philippines, where deforestation has denuded hillsides and where monsoon rains soak into the soil, then come roaring down.

 

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies blamed a combination of the weather — Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz said more than 20 inches of rain had fallen in the area since Feb. 1, nearly five times the average for the month — and the type of trees prevalent in the region.

 

"The remote coastal area of southern Leyte is heavily forested with coconut trees," the Red Cross said from Geneva. "They have shallow roots, which can be easily dislodged after heavy rains, causing the land to become unstable."

 

Gov. Rosette Lerias of southern Leyte Province said some palm trees had already begun to slide down the hillside, one by one, before the entire slope broke free.

 

Leyte Province has been struck by similar disasters in the past. In December 2004, 154 people were killed in a landslide that hit three towns in the southern part of the province. In 1991, nearly 4,000 people died when floods caused by a typhoon inundated Ormoc City.

 

An accurate death toll from this disaster may never be known. Lerias said many residents evacuated last week because of the threat of landslides or flooding. But they had begun to return because the rains had eased and the sun had come out.

 

Eulogio Dala, municipal assessor of Guinsaugon's district, said, "We had 30 villages before, now we only have 29."