Two dead, 2 missing, 1 injured in Southern Leyte landslide

Two dead, 2 missing, 1 injured in Southern Leyte landslide
By Ronron
January 9, 2007

Manila - Two persons died, two others are missing and one was injured in a landslide Monday in Southern Leyte due to continuous rains.

The incident happened past 4pm at Barangay Tampoong, Sogod town, which is some 50 kilometers away from the town of St. Bernard of the same province where a massive landslide buried an entire village in February last year, killing hundreds of people.

Sogod Information Officer Lord Nestor Guinoo told Manila Shimbun in a phone interview yesterday that three houses were buried by mixed soil, stones and little plants from the nearby hill, which gave way due to the non-stop rains since late December of last year.

Of the three affected families, two suffered casualties.

Recovered dead after the incident were the Cawaling couple – Julian, 70, and Mercy, 68; while the Cadavos couple – Emilio, 53, and Lilia, 65, remains missing as of Tuesday afternoon.

The 15-year-old grandson of the Cadavos survived the incident but sustained minor injuries, said Guinoo.

“The third affected family was lucky to have escaped the tragedy. Felisa Tantoy, who lives alone, was evacuated and is now under the case of the municipal government,” Guinoo said.

Cris Perez of the government weather station told Manila Shimbun that the rains in Southern Leyte were caused by the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone affecting Visayas and Mindanao.

“We already issued a warning earlier that the widespread rains could trigger parallel flashfloods and landslides in the affected areas, especially in the eastern section where the rains will be concentrated,” Perez said in a phone interview.

On February 17, 2005, continuous rains also caused a wide portion of a mountain in Barangay Guinsaugon in St. Bernard town to collapse and cover the entire village.

Over a thousand people were declared dead from that incident, which drew support and assistance from foreign countries in terms of search and rescue operations, and in the rehabilitation phase./DMS