Victims buried in landslides now feared dead

THE National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) yesterday placed the death toll as a result of last Monday’s magnitude 6.9 earthquake in Central and Western Visayas at 22 with 71 others still missing and feared dead after being buried in landslides that destroyed their homes.

NDRRMC chairman Benito Ramos said 52 others were injured while 45 houses were totally damaged and 92 others were partially destroyed during the quake that hit Negros Oriental.

The local military however had higher figures. At least 48 people were confirmed to have died in Negros, with another 92 missing, regional military commander Colonel Francisco Patrimonio said on Tuesday.

“It looks like there is no more hope of finding the missing alive,” said Ramos two days after the powerful earthquake devastated Negros Oriental leaving 29 persons missing after being trapped in a landslide that struck Barangay Planas in Guihulngan City and 42 others in Bgy. Solongon in La Libertad municipality. The victims are residents of mountainside communities who were believed to have been trapped under tons of rocks that buried their houses Monday.

Aftershocks were reported to be hampering search-and-rescue operations in Bgys. Planas and Solongon.

There is still no official report on the actual extent of damage to private and public properties and other infrastructures even as government engineers continued examining cracks on main roads and concrete structures in the quake areas.

However, Police Regional Office 7 director Chief Superintendent Marcelo P. Garbo Jr. said the earthquake totally damaged the Seventh Day Adventist Church and a Catholic Church in Guihulngan City and partially damaged the St. Francis College, the Hall of Justice, a public market, a Caltex building, the Plaza Lodge and the Philippine Independence Church.

Patients were also forced to stay outside the Guihulngan Hospital for fear of another earthquake which crippled electricity in the town.

Soldiers and policemen are involved in the massive search for the missing victims in La Libertad and Guihulngan City, the NDRRMC said.

As of yesterday, rescuers said they were having a hard time locating some of the buried houses. ANC reported that a local resident who accompanied an Army search team urged the rescuers to hurry up after he received a text message from his daughter Cindy who was trapped under the rubble.

The resident said she received a text message from Cindy that she is already getting hungry and thirsty but could already see light.

The body of Cindy was found Tuesday afternoon.

Local officials have appealed for food, water, tents and medicines in Guihulngan City where the water supply system was totally damaged and electricity was totally cut-off.

The dead were identified as Bernadeth Raidan, 9, a Grade 2 student of the Matuog Elementary School and Ramon Ganti,60, both from Tayasan, Negros Oriental; Anafe Estrabella, a Grade 6 pupil from Bgy. Mompong in Jimalalud, Negros Oriental; Manolita Corceiga,10, also from Bgy. Mompong; Betty Gilbert Ubando,13, and Eric Benigay,7, both of Bgy. Magsaysay, Guihulngan City; Maricar Narciso,37, of Bgy. McKinley, Guihulngan City; Aljun Sabando, also of Bgy. Poblacion; One ‘Bayloces,’ a resident of Bindoy, Negros Oriental; Acebes Palumar, Bais City, Negros Oriental; and three still unidentified persons from Bgy. Poblacion in Guihulngan City.

Guihulngan Mayor Ernesto Reyes said the mountain community in Guihulngan was buried under about 10 meters (30 feet) of debris, with rescue efforts painfully slow because people had only picks, shovels and their bare hands to claw through the dirt.

Roads and bridges to Guihulngan, a coastal city of about 100,000 flanked by mountains, were badly damaged in the quake, meaning earth movers and supplies for survivors could not be quickly deployed to the area, he said.

"Our immediate concern now is how to serve the living -- we don't have enough food, there is no electricity and water," Reyes said.

"We are appealing for help from everyone."

The other missing people were reported in the nearby farming town of La Libertad, where a cluster of hillside homes were also crushed by a landslide, according to Negros Oriental province governor Roel Degamo.

"We are in a state of shock, and all we can do now for those still missing is to pray," Degamo said.

Civil Defense Office chief Benito Ramos said five military battalions, or about 2,000 troops, had been deployed to the devastated zones and were helping local rescue units.

"We are racing against time, and hoping against hope that maybe, just maybe some of them might still be alive," he said.

However, he said the military had not yet been able to get heavy equipment into the landslide-devastated communities because of the damaged roads.                

With AFP