Over 100 dead, missing as landslides hit Leyte

TACLOBAN CITY — More than 100 people are missing and feared dead in the aftermath of landslides and floods in southern Leyte and Mindanao, officials said yesterday. As of late yesterday, at least 39 bodies have been recovered.

Southern Leyte Gov. Rosette Lerias said 13 people were confirmed dead in San Francisco town and 93 others were missing more than 12 hours after the disaster struck late Friday. More than 250 have been rescued, she said.

In Manila, President Arroyo ordered the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) and its attached agencies to immediately launch rescue and relief operations in communities hit by landslides and flash floods in Southern Leyte and other areas.

The President also allowed local government units in the disaster areas to declare a state of emergency to give them immediate access to calamity funds.

"I want periodic reports from the NDCC on casualties, damage and disaster operations," Mrs. Arroyo added.

Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the number of casualties is expected to increase as 23 people were buried alive when another landslide hit a village in Liloan yesterday afternoon.

"There are landslides all over the province," Lerias said, adding that 80 houses were reported buried in the San Francisco landslide. "We experienced unusually heavy rains during the last six days. The rains triggered the landslides."

In nearby Liloan town, authorities reported two were killed in landslides and 17 others were still buried in the debris and feared dead. Three others died in the flood, Lerias said.

Lerias said landslides also occurred in the towns of Libagon and Pintuyan but no fatalities have been reported to the Provincial Disaster and Coordinating Council.

Twenty-one bodies were recovered in Maasin, according to Ermita, citing reports from the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) at Camp Aguinaldo.

Late yesterday, Lerias declared Southern Leyte under a state of calamity.

"This is the worst experience we have had in years," she said, adding that bad weather, blocked roads and a power outage in the island were hampering rescue work.

She said the military was planning to send helicopters and rubber boats to speed up rescue operations.

"Thank God, there was no typhoon," Lerias said, noting that a low-pressure area northeast of Leyte was bringing rains to Eastern Visayas.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) reported that as of 2 p.m. yesterday, a low-pressure area brought about by an intertropical convergence zone was estimated at 130 kilometers east of northern Mindanao.

Pagasa’s forecast indicates that eastern and southern Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao will experience cloudy skies with scattered rain and thunderstorms today. Moderate to strong winds will prevail over eastern Luzon and eastern Visayas, and coastal waters in these areas will be moderate to rough.

NDCC executive director Melchor Rosales said the Armed Forces of the Philippines has dispatched two helicopters but low-lying clouds and intermittent rain delayed rescue operations.

Ermita said these helicopters, tasked to help in rescue operations at Liloan, were stranded in Maasin due to heavy rains and poor visibility.

He also said that a Navy search and rescue vessel bearing relief goods and medicines left Tacloban yesterday and is on its way to Liloan and Maasin.

He added that he has ordered the National Food Authority’s Maasin office to distribute rice to families affected by the landslide.

Army troops are now in Liloan and Maasin with heavy equipment to help in rescue operations, according to Maj. Gen. Glenn Rabonza, commander of the Army’s 8th Infantry Division.

Rabonza said relief goods have been distributed to 300 affected residents.

Allen Olayvar, OCD coordinator for Southern Leyte, said provincial officials received cell phone text messages early yesterday reporting the casualties.

"Emergency!" one text message said. "There are so many dead from landslide here… Please inform the government to get help here. There are no medicines at the (Regional Health Unit)."

Roads to San Francisco were blocked by landslides and forced an eight-man medical team from the Department of Health (DOH) to go to the town by boat. The medical team is composed of epidemiologists, surgeons and nurses.

Dr. Milagros Bacos, DOH director for Eastern Visayas, said she is still waiting for the medical team’s report.

"They had to take pump boats to get there from Tacloban City. There is no pump boat going there directly. I just don’t know how long it will take them to reach the area," she said.

Several buses bound for a port in Liloan have also been stranded, Olayvar said.

Lorene Sia, duty officer at the regional civil defense office in Butuan City, said nine people, including two infants, were killed in separate landslides in Surigao City in Surigao del Norte.

She said six other people were reported missing and six more were injured, including a five-year-old girl.

Sia said three people drowned in the flood in Agusan del Sur and one person was missing.

At least 5,260 people were evacuated from rising floodwaters that damaged more than 220 houses and destroyed 62 in the northeastern Mindanao region close to southern Leyte, she said.

A total of 11,856 families are now being housed in various evacuation centers set up by government agencies and local governments in Southern Leyte and Mindanao.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said her office confirmed 19 dead but did not say how many were believed buried, adding that some of the missing may have simply fled and not reported in.

"Let us pray that the death toll will not be that high," Soliman said in a radio interview.

She said the actual number of fatalities will be reconciled later, but for now the authorities are concentrating on rescue efforts and caring for those displaced.

About 150 families who fled the disaster scene were sheltered in evacuation centers and food and medicines were being rushed to them, Soliman added.

Soliman said she and Ermita will visit the affected towns today or Monday but will not go to the area immediately to ensure all transport resources are used to help the victims.

Only two helicopters were immediately available for rescue and relief efforts, she added.

Police Senior Inspector Romualdo Baguhin told reporters that as many as 20 houses in his town of San Francisco were buried in the avalanche of mud.

Liloan Vice Mayor Antonio Maamo said survivors told him they heard a loud crash late Friday night up in the mountains. A few minutes later, a torrent of mud descended on their houses.

Residents panicked and fled for high ground but had difficulty navigating in the darkness, said Teresita Orano, one of the survivors who lost a child in the disaster.

Maamo said three houses in his town were completely buried.

Getting help for those affected was made more difficult because the landslides had washed out some bridges, preventing heavy equipment from being brought in, he said.

Rescuers were forced to dig using hand tools, like shovels and iron bars, Maamo said as he appealed to the public to send help.

Radio reports from the scene quoted witnesses as saying that many recovered bodies had been laid out beside the road. However, no exact death toll was given.

The Philippines is hit by 17 to 20 typhoons every year. The most destructive was code named "Thelma," which struck Leyte in November 1991 and unleashed floods that killed about 5,000 people. — With Sheila Crisostomo, AP, AFP, Reuters