Man leaves Las Vegas to find 10 missing kin

SAINT BERNARD, Southern Leyte — His chubby frame half buried in the thick mud, Las Vegas car salesman Norman Barrister is waging a desperate personal search for 10 members of his family buried alive by a Philippine landslide.

After sneaking past military rescue personnel before dawn yesterday, the 35-year-old Barrister navigated by memory through a sea of mud and rocks that cascaded down the slopes of Mount Can-abag last Friday and buried his childhood home in the farmng village of Guinsaugon here.

This is the same mountain slope that once provided his family members with their livelihood — his grandfather tended a coffee plantation there. Now, it’s just a heap of rubble.

Tears streamed down his mud-caked face as he alternately used his hands and a shovel to dig. Barrister said he still hopes his relatives are alive three days after the tragedy.

Seventy-two bodies have so far been recovered and up to 1,400 more are believed buried after the village in the central island of Leyte was wiped off the map.

Barrister jumped on the first flight from Las Vegas shortly after hearing of the tragedy. He arrived on the island Sunday.

"My beloved grandfather, mother, my brother, aunt, cousins and their children are in there. We cannot lose hope," he told a passing rescue team, begging them for assistance.

Barrister said he knows his brother was still alive some seven hours after the tragedy Friday because of a mobile-phone message he sent to his girlfriend.

"That was the last we heard from my brother," he said, adding that surviving relatives told him the entire family was having snacks when the tragedy happened.

"My aunt is a member of a local women’s charitable institution and there was some sort of gathering here," he said, pointing to a huge boulder where he believes the family compound once stood.

"I am sure some of the houses are here, I just need one dog please," he appealed to a passing canine rescue team headed in the opposite direction. "That area there is a valley, there (are) no houses there, believe me please."

Barrister left Guinsaugon in 1991 for the United States with his American father and Filipina mother. They left behind his half-brother and members of the extended family, hoping they could one day join them in America.

He was born in Guinsaugon and as a teenager played with his friends on the mountain famed for its sweet spring water.

Whenever it rained, deep gullies would form at the top of the mountain creating small waterfalls and landslides, he recalled.

"But that was a normal thing. I never thought that one day this mountain would swallow my relatives," he said, directing the rescuers to an area where he believes the primary school is located.

More than 200 children and 40 teachers were inside at the time.

Rain began falling again Monday, loosening the soil and creating small streams of water. Rescuers sank to their knees occasionally, struggling under loads of supplies.

"The area is constantly shifting and every day the landscape changes," said one of the Red Cross team leaders, Hector Reyes.

He urged Barrister to calm down, telling him help is already at the site. But the rescue effort is painfully slow.

"The area is just buried so deep in the mud, it’s very difficult to navigate and to put markers once you identify a structure," Reyes said.