5 Dead, 100 Feared Trapped In Naga City, Cebu Landslide

[GBT62 836]

5 dead, 100 feared trapped in Naga City, Cebu landslide

http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2018/09/20/Landslide-City-of-Naga-Cebu.html

 

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 20) — Authorities have recovered five bodies while trying to rescue dozens others from a landslide trapped residents and workers of a quarrying site in the city of Naga in Cebu province early Thursday morning.

A four-year-old girl, an elderly woman, and three adults died in the landslide, while four others were rescued.

Chief Inspector Roderick Gonzales, Naga police chief, estimated at least 20 to 25 houses in Barangay Tinaan and five to ten houses in adjacent Barangay Naalad were "completely covered" after the landslide. The Cebu disaster management office said 100 people are feared trapped in the rubble.

But hope is not lost. Officials said they received a text at 11 a.m. from a family of six that they are buried in the landslide, but are alive.

However, rescue operations won't be easy.

Gonzalez said soil has softened from heavy rains that triggered the landslide, making it hard for heavy equipment to proceed to ground zero.

"We are now in the crucial time that's why pinapabilis natin ang pagsagip sa may mga signs pa of life. Hindi magagamit ang heavy equipment tulad ng backhoe because napaka lambot ng lupa. Kapag naghukay ka, biglang gumuguho ulit. Very crucial ang ginagawang rescue," he told CNN Philippines.

Gonzales said some of the trapped residents were workers of Apo Land and Quarry Corp., which has mining rights where the landslide happened.

Apo Land is owned by Impact Assets Corp., of which 40 percent is owned by listed Cemex Philippines Holdings.

Apo Land representative Chito Maniago said they have mining rights over the area, but they have not yet started begun operations.

"We have plans in the future, but we have confirmed wala pa tayong ginagawang quarry operations dito," he told CNN Philippines.

He added they have coordinated with the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), the government agency tasked to regulate mining operations, regarding the cracks reportedly found in the area.

He added some families have already vacated the area, but some chose to stay.

"In fact, hanggang kagabi ay ang mga tao natin were on the ground to convince the people to relocate and vacate the area because ang findings ng Mines and Geosciences Bureau ay it would best relocate," he said.

MGB said the area has limestone rocks, while cracks and fissures are common.

Last week, more than 40 landslides have been recorded in the country in the aftermath of typhoon Ompong. The highest casualty count happened in Barangay Ucab in Itogon, Benguet on September 15. As of Thursday morning, 23 bodies have been recovered and rescuers are looking for 47 more.

[Headshot 29,350]

I have often thought that area was just a disaster waiting to happen. Squatters have built shanties directly under denuded hillsides there for years, and it should have been obvious to everyone that it would not end well. Maybe it is time for local governments here to start removing squatters from places like that instead of just waiting until they are all swept away by the Earth doing what it always does.

And maybe it is time for government here to start reforesting the denuded peaks above populated areas.

[SkyMan 23,700]

I would not have expected it to just go sideways like that.  Amazing.  Hope they are successful in rescuing more.

[KID 9,678]

One of the scariest moments in my life was when I was a kid and lived in Pacifica Ca and the opposite side of the hill we lived on gave way and took a few houses down. Had a hard time sleeping after that one

God's speed to the rescuers 

 

[lamoe 14,535]

10 hours ago, SkyMan said:

I would not have expected it to just go sideways like that.  Amazing.  Hope they are successful in rescuing more.

Followed the valley between ridges?

[hyaku 2,802]

Looking at all the videos of cracks caused by earth moving at the top there was nothing natural about this disaster.

[shadow 18,483]

[Enuff 29,738]

I was at Osmena Peak last last last weekend.

The roads they are building are many, and most on the edge using some ancient rock stacking technique then coving it with chicken wire.

They will be the next to fall.

Sent from my CPH1819 using Tapatalk

[oztony 36,116]

A complete lack of oversight on the project , a complete lack of standard civil engineering , a complete lack of common sense , a complete lack of..............

A vast area , with all of the vegetation removed , levels created to suit the activity that was going on and just collecting water and weight ...  and for that much subsidence to occur ....it all appeared to emanate from the higher point and the weight and force of that coming down onto the next level just took the whole hill out ...which was just always going to be the case with what they had created on that project ..... blame nature all you like , but this event was caused by downright human ignorance ....

[Bama 1,743]

On 9/20/2018 at 3:16 PM, Headshot said:

Maybe it is time for local governments here to start removing squatters from places like that instead of just waiting until they are all swept away by the Earth doing what it always does.

Removing the squatters seems like a no brainer but perhaps the politics in doing so doesn't work for some.

There is a section of T Town right on the water called Anibong. The squatters that lined the bay were washed out during Yolanda and a bunch of them killed.The authorities designated the area a no build zone but in a few months every inch that had been wiped out had been rebuilt.

I asked a prominent local business woman why the rebuild was allowed to happen.She said it was politics.With so many people packed together it made it easier for the politicians to send buses out to pick them all up during the elections.

Here is an unwelcome visitor to Anibong who was pushed ashore during Yolanda and never left.This rusting hulk sat for months before they cut off the front and made a memorial out of it.

 

 

 

[lamoe 14,535]

Saw on TV - up to 25?