Sounds heard at site of buried Philippine school
High-tech equipment has detected sounds at the site of a Philippine school buried by a landslide, US and Malaysian officials said today.
It was unclear whether the sounds were made by survivors or whether the soft, unstable mud covering the school was shifting and settling.
The search for survivors from the landslide that swamped the farming village of Guinsaugon – killing up to 1,400 people – has focused on the school because of unconfirmed reports that some of the 250-300 children and teachers may have sent cell phone text messages to relatives soon after the disaster on Friday.
However, no survivors have been pulled from the 100-acre morass that used to be Guinsaugon since Friday, and the mud over the school was believed to be up to 115 feet deep.
A US military spokesman said US Marines digging at the site had found bodies, but no survivors.
“I asked had they received or found any type of survivors, and the answer was no,” US Marine Capt. Burrell Parmer said after speaking to the commander of US forces at the disaster site.
The statement discounted an earlier report by Philippine Interior Under-secretary Marius Corpus that US Marines had found 50 survivors. There was no immediate explanation for how the false report had spread.
“There is a lot of rubble, a lot of large boulders,” Parmer said. “On some sides near the river, it’s very moist, very soft soil, and you can get stuck up to your heels and your waistline if you’re not careful.”
Still, the Marines were anxious to discover the origin of sounds detected by seismic sensors.
“The farther down we went, the signals grew stronger,” US Marine Lt. Richard Neikirk said as he pointed to a spot under a big boulder.
A Malaysian team using sound-detection gear picked up noises, too.
“We have a sound,” said Sahar Yunos of the Malaysia Disaster and Rescue Team. “Knocking, something like that.”
A rescue dog also stopped three times at one spot away from where rescue workers were digging.
There was no visible sign of the school. Rescue workers were digging at two places – one that was believed to be the original site of the school, close to the mountain that collapsed Friday, the other 200 yards down the hill, where the landslide could have carried it.
Dozens of US Marines and Philippine soldiers, along with local miners, were digging in a watery spot around the school’s original site, using shovels on the muck and moving it with body bags, while draining the murky fluid with large water bottles.
The search was a painstaking process as the crews went yard by yard.
The Marines were from the five-man Third Intelligence Ground Sensor platoon, accompanied by 15 armed Marines.
They deployed nine seismic sensors that can detect vibrations underground. With everyone standing still, one man then used a steel bar to hit on a rock several times and waited for any kind of response underground.
Four sensors detected some “noise” or vibration, but the men could not tell what it was.
They were followed by the 15-man Malaysian team using sensor gear called Delsar and employing similar techniques.
Five Taiwanese, who brought heat-imaging equipment, arrived to check for signs of life, too. Rescuers were radioing for water pumps and floodlights to continue working through the night.
A rain-drenched mountain collapsed on Guinsaugon in a hail of earth, boulders and trees.
Some officials were talking about leaving the village as a massive cemetery, similar to tsunami-ravaged areas elsewhere in south-east Asia where digging out bodies was simply too difficult and dangerous. With no one left to claim them, unidentified bodies already are being buried in mass graves.
Philippine military officials had feared 1,800 people, virtually the entire population of Guinsaugon, died. But Gov. Rosette Lerias of Southern Leyte province said 76 people were confirmed dead and 928 were missing.
National disaster officials in Manila said number of missing was 1,350, including 246 schoolchildren.
There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy.
Official figures of how many survivors were pulled from the mud on Friday have also differed, with counts ranging from 20 to 57.
Two ships carrying US Marines, diverted from joint military exercises elsewhere in the Philippines, joined rescue efforts yesterday. Helicopters ferried men and supplies to the site, and Marines surveyed roads and bridges to see if they could support the weight of heavy military vehicles and equipment.
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