Search for survivors after landslides
RESCUERS hampered by mud and rain yesterday used their bare hands and shovels to search for survivors of landslides that smashed into villages in the central Philippines, as the death toll from tropical storm Megi rose to 42.
Tens of thousands of people fled their homes as the storm pummelled the disaster-prone region in recent days, flooding houses, severing roads and knocking out power.
At least 36 people died and 27 were missing after landslides slammed into multiple villages around Baybay City in Leyte province, the hardest hit by the storm, local authorities said. More than 100 people were injured. Three people were also killed in the central province of Negros Oriental and three on the main southern island of Mindanao, said the national disaster agency.
Most of the deaths in Leyte were in the mountainous village of Mailhi where 14 bodies were found after a “mudflash” buried homes, said Army Captain Kaharudin Cadil.
“We recovered most of the bodies embedded in the mud,” said Cadil, spokesperson for the 802nd Infantry Brigade. Drone footage showed a wide stretch of mud that had swept down a hill of coconut trees and engulfed
Bunga, another community devastated by the storm. At least seven people had been killed and 20 villagers were missing in Bunga, which was reduced to a few rooftops poking through the mud.
In the village of Kantagnos, which had been hit by two landslides, resident Daniel Racaza, 26, said he was asleep when an avalanche of mud and water swept over the riverside community. He managed to escape with his boyfriend and 16 relatives, but an aunt was caught in the torrent.
“I only managed to save my cellphone and we have nothing to go back to,” Racaza said from a high school where he was sheltering.
Some other residents fled in time or were pulled out of the mud alive,
but four villagers have been confirmed dead and many are feared trapped.
A Philippine Coast Guard video on Facebook showed six rescuers carrying a mud-caked woman on a stretcher, while other victims were piggybacked to safety. ”We are looking for many people, there are 210 households there,” Baybay City mayor Jose Carlos Cari said.
A state of calamity was declared in Baybay City, freeing up funds for relief efforts and giving local officials power to control prices.
The national disaster agency said landslides around Baybay City had reached settlements “outside the danger zone”, catching many residents by surprise.