OMG This is such a sad story
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11400414/
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Landslide buries homes, school in Philippines
23 confirmed dead; Red Cross estimates 1,500 missing on Leyte island
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 8:31 a.m. ET Feb. 17, 2006
MANILA, Philippines - Hundreds of villagers were feared dead after a rain-soaked mountainside disintegrated into a torrent of mud, swallowing hundreds of houses and an elementary school in the eastern Philippines on Friday. Twenty-three people were confirmed dead, and at least 1,500 were missing.
“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.”
The farming village of Guinsaugon on Leyte island, 420 miles southeast of Manila, was virtually wiped out, with only a few jumbles of corrugated steel sheeting left to show that the community of some 2,500 people ever existed.
Two other villages also were affected, and about 3,000 evacuees were 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 some places — and unstable that rescue workers had difficulty approaching the school. Education officials said 200 students, six teachers and the principal were believed to have been there.
Digging suspended
By nightfall, relief flights and digging were suspended because of darkness and continued danger.
“The troops pulled out because big boulders are cascading down the mountain,” said Colonel Raul Farnacio, in charge of the military’s relief operations.
“Rescuers are scared because they can still hear the mountain rumbling,” added Maria Lim, the mayor of Saint Bernard town.
Sen. Richard Gordon, head of the Philippine Red Cross, said 1,500 people were missing.
The provincial governor asked for people to dig by hand, saying the mud was too soft for heavy equipment.
The U.S. embassy said a Navy vessel, in the Philippines for annual military exercises, would help with the rescue efforts.
Few rescued from mud
There appeared to be little hope for finding many survivors, and only about three dozen were extricated from the brown morass before dark halted rescue efforts for the night.
“It was like the whole village was wiped out,” said Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Restituto Padilla.
Aerial TV footage showed a wide swath of mud amid stretches of rice paddies at the foothills of the scarred mountain.
Congressman Roger Mercado said residents had been advised to leave the village after weeks of heavy rain but he laid some of the blame on mining and logging in the area three decades ago.
“They would not evacuate,” he said. “This is the effect of the logging before. Every time it rains there are flashfloods.”
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.
“Let us all pray for those who perished and were affected by this tragedy,” President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said in a statement. “Help is on the way,” she promised survivors. “You will soon be out of harm’s way.”
Volunteers from nearby provinces were quickly joined by groups of troops being ferried in by helicopter, with more en route by sea.
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.....See more at MSNBC link below
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11400414/
MAny Feared Dead in Philipines!!!!
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