Map is all that remains of farming village in Southern Leyte

SAINT BERNARD, Southern Leyte (AFP) — The tiny farming village of Guinsaugon here used to have a school and three churches, lush green fields along with more than 300 houses.

Now all that remains is a crude map, a quick sketch on a blackboard to help rescuers get an idea of what Guinsaugon looked like before it was swallowed up by mud.

"It was a prosperous and productive village," says Hamito Coquilla, his eyes red with fatigue and tears. Looking across the Lawigan River, he looks at the blanket of muck that buried Guinsaugon, and almost everyone in it on Friday.

Only a few rice paddies remain, everything else is desolation. His wife and three children, his uncle, and one of his cousins have not been heard from since.

"There were lots of houses, including many made from stone and brick that were several stories tall," he says with some pride, emphasizing the difference from other villages on Leyte island, where bamboo huts are the norm.

But they were no match for the tons of mud and boulders that came crashing down the mountainside.

"My wife sent me a text message to tell me about the landslide. I started running from the next village over," says Coquilla, a 37-year-old truck driver. He got a last message from his cousin on Saturday.

"Since then I’ve heard nothing," he says. "In just a few minutes, they lost everything."

One of his cousins was a teacher at the village school, where 200 students and 40 teachers are believed buried among the roughly 1,400 people unaccounted for.

"The school was built with tough materials," he says hopefully. Rescue workers want to share his optimism, but several Philippine officials have conceded that hope of finding more survivors is all but lost.

The truck driver, despondent about his own family, managed to dig through the earth and rubble using just his bare hands to save a woman and her child. They were so caked in mud that he could not tell how old they were.

Since then, the soldiers and rescue workers dispatched to the scene have asked him to leave the disaster zone, warning him to stay off the unstable ground, which is saturated after days of heavy rains.

Rescuers are pouring into what was once Guinsaugon, now covered in up to 100 feet of mud, rock and debris. Many cross the river in the scoop of a bulldozer that is serving as a makeshift ferry.

"We came to help," says 19-year-old Ian Degamo, vice president of the youth organization in the neighboring town of Maasin who, along with about 15 friends, is helping to distribute food to aid workers.

"My girlfriend’s relatives are among the missing," he says.

While there is no shortage of motivation or good will, the rescue effort in Guinsaugon has repeatedly been hampered by poor weather conditions and the village’s difficult-to-reach location.

Brig. Gen. Mastin Robeson, commander of the US Marines diverted from training exercises to help with emergency relief operations, makes a list of items needed by the Philippines aid charities on site.

"We have to get organized," he says.

After several marathon negotiation sessions, all parties decide to set up an emergency command center on the nearby island of Cebu, but is there enough time?

Only about 20 people have been pulled out alive from the mud since Friday. The bodies of the rest may never even be recovered.

"I was only able to pull out one body," says 21-year-old Irvin Lograno.

"But when I pulled, I only had the limbs."