Tuesday marked three days since the partial collapse of a mountainside in the Cordillera region of northern Luzon released tonnes of mud and rocks onto the mining town of Itogon, destroying hundreds of homes and burying dozens.
So far 14 bodies have been recovered from the site, some buried by the mud, others thrown from their homes during the landslide. Three people have been rescued from under the rubble alive.
Rescue efforts are now centering on a partially submerged forming miners’ bunkhouse, believed to have been used by families as a storm shelter during the typhoon.
Unable to bring in heavy machinery due to the terrain, teams are having to work with shovels in what has become a difficult, grueling search.
“The national police came to warn the people. They thought it was safe here in the bunkhouse, so the people came right here to stay for safety reasons,” said Rodel Olina, who works as a miner and is now helping with the rescue effort.
“Some of my cousins are there — we don’t know. So we continue to recover them,” said Olina.
‘We will not lose hope’
Cordillera Regional Director of the Bureau of Fire Protection Lilibeth Simangan told CNN that the teams — consisting of local search and rescue teams and volunteers, alongside specialists from the capital, Manila, the Philippines National Police and the military — had not given up hope that they will find survivors.
“We are very optimistic that we can finish this with the assistance of all the sectors, of the military and civilian side, as well as the local government units.
“We are still hoping, of course we will not lose hope … on the first day we were able to rescue about three alive.”
She said that the rescue operations had been on site since September 16, the first day after the typhoon hit. “Then they were able to (recover) about ten (bodies).” A further four were discovered on Monday, she said. Medical personnel are on hand in the event survivors are found.
Initially the recovered bodies had been carried up the hill in a two-hour hike, but rescuers have now devised a rope system, enabling them to pull the remains of those found up to where family members are waiting for news. Supplies to the teams down at the site are also sent down the rope system.
“Today we still don’t know the number but there are cadavers ready to be pulled up,” Simangan said.
‘As days go on, hope disappears’
Since Saturday, dozens of family members have gathered at a staging area up the road from where the landslide happened.
One, 49-year-old Alex Binwag of Ifugao province — geographically close, but an almost six-hour drive along twisting, mountain roads away — had gathered with four other members of his family to await news of his cousin, 25-year-old Jeffery Licyauo.
Licyauo had been mining in the area for five years, Binwag said, adding that as time continues to pass, his family just wants some word on his cousin’s fate.
“As the days go on, hope disappears,” he said.
Noemi Gelera, 59, was hopeful her grandson Jerome Pillann survived the landslide.
“I am hoping” she said. “All I want is to see his body and give him a proper burial if he didn’t survive.”
When she first heard about the landslide she immediately traveled to the area. The waiting has been “heavy,” she said.
Storm toll rises
On Tuesday presidential spokesman Harry Roque said that, across Luzon — the largest and most populous island in the Philippines — 63 people had died, 42 were injured and 49 still missing as a result of Mangkhut’s destructive streak across the country.
In Itogon, family members and officials continue to hold out hope that survivors will be located.
Workers from the mining community have joined forces with government rescuers to redouble efforts to locate those still missing and believed trapped.
“This is the first time I’ve seen this kind of landslide. It’s massive, and almost everyone is affected. Even the miners are helping the rescuers, the police — everyone is giving their best,” one rescuer said.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte would visit the province of Isabela later today, Roque said. Isabela itself didn’t suffer any casualties but was heavily damaged.
Source : Nbcnewyork
