Rescuers: Time to face the truth

Rescuers dug their way closer to a buried elementary school, the focus of a hunt for some 1,400 people entombed by a massive landslide, but a search team leader said no signs of life had been detected and it was time to face the truth that the missing must now be dead.

"It is good to hope but relatives of those missing should by now already know the reality," said Hector Reyes, leader of the Philippine Canine Search and Rescue Team.

A Malaysian team operating remote sensing probes had reported sounds Monday but it was unclear whether they were made by humans. They and a Taiwanese team with similar equipment heard nothing yesterday.

"It is a fact that in this type of disaster people trapped may already be dead," said Malaysian team leader Yaacob Yusuf. "It is not good to keep (relatives) hoping."

Some 1,000 rescuers from at least five countries were battling muddy terrain made even more treacherous by heavy overnight rain. There was no estimate of when the first building would be unearthed in what was once the vibrant farming village of Guinsaugon.

"The rain just kept pounding last night. The mud was real difficult to navigate and walk on," said US Marine officer Bowie Trent.

"Our main obstacle now is the terrain. It changed overnight."

Cheng-Tsung Tan, leader of a specialist Taiwanese team, said the school, which is feared to contain the bodies of 240 pupils and staff, was only under three meters of soil and rubble and not 20 to 30 meters as first thought.

However, the force of Friday’s landslide, triggered by two weeks of abnormally heavy rain, had torn the school from its foundations and pushed it to a new location.

With aid and specialist equipment and trucks pouring in from around the world, the biggest obstacle was the weather.

"It’s really very hard for us because our detectors can catch sound traveling on solid ground or material, but if the ground is soft, it’s difficult to hear," Yussuf said.

Rescue workers were digging at two places — one where the school was believed to have sat close to the mountain, the other 200 meters down the hill, where the landslide could have carried it.

But search teams moved carefully, unable to work as fast as they waited for fear that their movements could set off more landslides.

Despite heavy rains, the search continued overnight yesterday after emergency lighting was installed.

But the rain reshaped the sea of mud that now covers the village to an extent of nine square kilometers. Malaysian, American and Filipino rescuers need a big log to bridge a creek that had sprung up overnight.

Rescuers temporarily suspended operations around midnight overnight for safety reasons following minor earth slippages.

The civil defense office in Manila put the latest confirmed death toll at 84. Some 400 people who were out of the village when disaster struck survived, leaving an estimated 1,400 buried. Only about 20 were pulled alive from the slide.

Data from the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) Data also showed that 281 houses were totally destroyed.

Health watch

eanwhile, health workers taking care of evacuees housed in temporary shelters near Barangay Guinsaugon are closely monitoring the condition of residents in evacuation centers to prevent a possible outbreak of measles, chicken pox and other diseases.

Residents of 11 nearby villages that like Guinsaugon sit on the narrow valley running south to Saint Bernard had fled their homes in fear of more landslides. Southern Leyte Gov. Rosette Lerias added that some 4,000 residents of three other towns on the tiny island of Panaon, south of Saint Bernard also left their homes as the Guinsaugon landslide was preceded by a series of smaller landslides around Sogod town to the west that killed 20 people.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque said yesterday that due to congestion in different temporary shelters, there had been reported cases of measles and chicken pox among children, prompting health workers to administer vaccines.

He allayed fears though that the disease might spread.

"We have four cases of chicken pox, some cases of colds, asthma, diarrhea and chest pains but these are all isolated cases and we are still on close watch," he said.

Health Undersecretary Ethelyn Nieto said the health department has sent anti-measles and anti-chicken pox vaccines and chlorine granules to the area for sanitation of drinking water.

Duque said the NBI is set to deploy DNA experts to the area to aid in the identification of bodies.

World Health Organization (WHO) Philippine representative Dr. Jean Marc Olivé told The STAR in a separate interview that they have also sent a medical expert to look into the condition of evacuees to see to it that they are being provided with the best health care.

Meanwhile, the Red Cross has vowed to intensify rescue and relief missions to Saint Bernard. In a statement, it said that the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) has already allocated 200,000 Swiss francs to PNRC’s disaster operations. It has also launched an international emergency appeal seeking $1.6 million in cash, kind or services. — AFP, AP, James Mananghaya, Jaime Laude