Hope Fades for Villagers in Philippine Mudslide Horror

Search teams looking for the estimated 1,800 people missing after a landslide buried a village on Leyte island in the Philippines yesterday found only bodies, as rescuers warned there was now no hope of finding any more survivors from the mudslip that buried three farming villages.

By last night, 36 hours after Guinsaugon was obliterated by a 10-metre wall of mud, trees and sludge, 54 bodies had been recovered, including that of a man believed to be Rebor White, 53, a Briton who lived in the village with his wife.

The population was officially 1,857 and only 57 survivors had been found on Friday. Eleven nearby villages thought to be at risk of landslides were evacuated as a precaution and local authorities said the residents will probably not be allowed to return for several days as further heavy rain is forecast.

The provincial governor, Rosette Lerias, said the search would continue today, particularly in the area where the primary school was, in a bid to find the estimated 206 children and 40 adults who were in the complex at the time of the disaster.

‘There are reports that people in the school sent text messages after the disaster, so they survived for at least a little while,’ she said. ‘We have no confirmation but I hope it’s true. We want to believe in anything that will give us hope.’

Edwin Pamonag, a Red Cross rescue worker, told The Observer that one of the messages received on Friday reportedly said: ‘We’re still in one room - and we’re alive,’ and another said: ‘We are alive. Dig us out.’

‘I called the number of one of the teachers who had reportedly sent a message but there was no answer,’ he said. ‘A recording just said the phone was out of coverage area.’

The mud was too soft to use the two earth movers that were brought in, so the machinery was used to transport the corpses across a stream to the nearest town, Saint Bernard.

All the rescue teams, which comprise military, government officials, Red Cross workers and locals, stopped work at 6.30pm local time because it was considered too dangerous to continue.

Pamonag said he was not holding out much hope of finding any more survivors. ‘By tomorrow morning it will be 48 hours since the landslide and I would think the survival rate is zero.’