Disease Threatens Philippine Mudslide Survivors
Date: 22-Feb-06
Country: PHILIPPINES
Author: Bobby Ranoco and Pedro Uchi
"The health concern is more within the evacuation centres," Health Secretary Francisco Duque said on television, adding that, so far, medics had diagnosed nine cases of chickenpox, three cases of measles and three cases of sore eyes.
"The stench of recovered bodies could be a cause of concern."
Friday's landslide, triggered by five times the region's normal rainfall over two weeks, obliterated Guinsaugon, a farming village of about 1,800 people which stood about 675 km (420 miles) southeast of Manila.
About 400 people who escaped the landslide in Guinsaugon, along with more than 1,600 people evacuated from neighbouring villages, are sheltering in parish churches and schools while emergency teams dig up and then bury the dead.
Survivors' hopes have faded for a miracle rescue of some of their 1,300 relatives and friends entombed in the fetid mud, which is up to 40 metres deep in some places.
So far, 94 bodies have been recovered.
Sonar equipment failed on Tuesday to detect any new scratching noises after rhythmic sounds had been picked up close to a packed elementary school late on Monday evening.
Rescuers, including US Marines dispatched from annual Philippine military exercises, are focusing their efforts on the school after unconfirmed reports that some of the 253 people trapped inside had sent desperate text messages on Friday.
Conditions are treacherous. Emergency workers from Taiwan, Spain and Malaysia, the American Marines, along with Philippine soldiers and miners, have had to contend with deep, shifting mud which threatens to swallow them in places.
Soldiers are paving a path for more accessibility.
Mass burials, conducted with holy water and powdered lime, are taking place to prevent disease spreading in the hot, wet conditions.
Officials have talked of eventually closing off the landslide area and leaving it as a mass burial ground.
CLINGING TO TREES
In hospital, survivors told of jumping from roofs to escape the torrent of mud. One six-year-old girl survived by clinging to a coconut tree.
"In one instant, in one flick of a hand, or before you can blink an eye, the landslide was there," Vicenta Solis, a 45-year old mother of two, told Reuters.
One of Solis's children is confirmed dead and the other is buried in the school. Her husband too was killed in the disaster.
In Manila, commentators complained about the country's lack of preparation for natural disasters despite its position on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a zone of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Government vulcanologists reminded residents in the central Philippines on Tuesday not to venture near the 2,460-metre (8,000-foot) Mayon volcano after their instruments detected successive low-volcanic quakes since Monday. Mayon last erupted in July 2001.
US President George W Bush rang President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo late on Monday to express sympathy for the disaster. Arroyo is to visit the mudslide site on Wednesday.
The United States is sending up to 3,000 of the 5,000 US soldiers and sailors taking part in annual war games in the southern Philippines to help in the relief effort.
The Philippines is usually hit by about 20 typhoons each year, with residents and environmental groups often blaming illegal logging or mining for compounding the damage.
The province of Leyte, where Guinsaugon is located, is no stranger to disaster. In 1991, more than 5,000 people died in floods triggered by a typhoon.
(Additional reporting by Dolly Aglay, Rosemarie Francisco and Wendy Ferrer in Manila)
