Rescuers Hear Only Silence From Sea of Mud

Rescue workers and soldiers searched for survivors without success Saturday in the sea of mud that covered what had been a thriving village of more than 1,800 people.

Authorities said more than 1,000 of the inhabitants of this remote village on Leyte Island were missing and might have died in the landslide that struck Friday morning after two weeks of heavy rain. Rescuers, who reported pulling 57 survivors from the muck Friday, said they did not find any more Saturday.

With the mud 30 feet deep, it was nearly impossible to reach the buildings underneath. Landmarks and even the tops of palm trees had been obliterated; simply finding where structures once stood was difficult.

Firefighters, soldiers and volunteers faced arduous conditions. The mud was so soft in some places that the rescuers sank up to their waists. Unable to use bulldozers because of the unstable soil, they dug with hand tools or just their hands. At times, they encountered boulders as big as houses that the mud had pushed down the mountain.

An elementary school that rescue crews had been trying to uncover remained out of reach. As many as 250 students were believed trapped.

“We’re still hoping for a miracle,” Southern Leyte province Gov. Rosette Lerias said early today. “Maybe huge boulders rolled around or over the school, blocking mud and forming a sort of air pocket for those trapped.”

Hopes for the survival of some of the students were raised Saturday when relatives reported receiving cellphone messages from a teacher trapped in the schoolhouse. But the last text message, which said four people remained alive, was received at 4 a.m. Saturday.

Above where the school was thought to be, body bags were waiting in a pile.

Soldiers pounded stones on boulders and shouted in the hope that survivors in the school would signal back. They got no response.

Water and mud continued to flow down from the mountain, sparking fear of another big slide that could bury the rescuers. Lack of electricity forced rescuers to halt their operations each day at sunset.

“Yesterday, we concentrated digging where there were supposed to be survivors, but found only big rocks and mud,” rescue worker Eugenio Abueva said early today. “We are starting off again this morning, hoping to find someone alive.”

“Our work has been very slow because we have to do everything by hand,” he said. “Heavy equipment could not be brought to the area. We are using shovels and iron bars.”

Rescue crews found 43 bodies Saturday and 12 more today, bringing to 66 the number of dead recovered. Many of the bodies showed signs that they had been dragged by the mudslide. Two of the people pulled alive from the mud died later.

The United States has sent two military vessels to Leyte to aid in the rescue effort and provide medical assistance. The first American military unit, a 15-person assessment team, arrived in the area late Saturday and was headed to Guinsaugon today.

Many victims of the mudslide had evacuated the village earlier because of danger of a landslide from the heavy rains. But when the rains began to ease up, they returned home.

“Those residents have been told for many years that they lived on a danger zone,” said Lerias. “They got used to a little flooding after heavy rains. So Friday, they thought it was just going to be like that, but in a matter of seconds there was a huge wall of rocks, soil and trees sliding down from the mountain.”

Authorities estimated that 350 villagers escaped the mudslide because they had not returned home Friday.

Adriano Fuego, director of Leyte’s office of civil defense, noted that the area was geologically unstable and had a history of mudslides. In 1991, about 6,000 were killed on Leyte after a major storm.

“The area is very dangerous and prone to landslides, but it is difficult to keep people out even after disasters,” Fuego said. “They come back and resettle in the same place. People forget or prefer to forget. They are in denial.”

After the slide buried Guinsaugon, thousands of residents in a dozen nearby villages were ordered to leave their homes because of the landslide danger. Lerias said the government must now turn from the rescue effort to the problem of relocating these people.

“There are thousands of families living in nearby towns and barrios who are also in landslide-prone danger zones,” she said. “They have to be evacuated and permanently resettled. That task is much bigger than what we are doing now.”

In the town of Saint Bernard four miles from Guinsaugon, three victims were buried Saturday in wooden boxes crudely fashioned from wood found floating in the mud.

Five villagers, each holding a small candle, conducted the funeral at the public cemetery. There was no priest to bless the dead, no flowers or wreath. Barefoot and wearing muddy clothes, the five pushed soil over the coffins and stuck crude wooden crosses into the ground.

The crosses bore no names.

*

Times staff writer Paddock reported from Singapore and special correspondent Santos from Guinsaugon. Special correspondent Sol Vanzi in Manila also contributed to this report.