1,800 FEARED DEAD AFTER LANDSLIDE IN LEYTE, PHILIPPINES
EXPERTS SAY ILLEGAL LOGGING MAY HAVE DESTABILIZED MOUNTAIN TERRAIN, ALLOWING CATASTROPHIC RUNOFF, MUDSLIDES
18 February 2006

The mudslides began amid two weeks of torrential rains, which flooded and destabilized mountainside soils. Witnesses described the event as sounding "like the mountain had exploded". An entire village essentially disappeared beneath the heavy sheets of mud.

Survivors said they could see no houses, no roof of any building, nothing standing. Guinsahugon village now appears totally destroyed by the mudslide. Initial accounts indicated at least 200 people had died, with another 1,500 to 1,600 missing.

Now, as rescuers have found it difficult to locate any air pockets under the mud and have located few survivors, as many as 1,800 of the missing are feared dead. With mud as deep as 10 meters in some places, and only 57 of the village's 1,857 residents rescued so far, authorities say they believe the remaining residents likely perished under the mud.

Ecological experts have said it appears that illegal logging was being done in the area, creating unstable terrain highly susceptible to mudslides. The Philippines, which has seen some of the most rapid deforestation in the world imposed a moratorium on all logging after a series of similar landslide events killed over 200 people in 2003.

In 1991, 8,000 people were killed in the central and southern Philippines when terrain shifted and became a mudslide under persistent heavy rains. The nation is still struggling to limit damage to remote mountain ecology and prevent further deforestation, even as black-market logging persists. [s]

• Guardian: "Hopes fade for 1,800 feared dead in mudslide"
• Guardian: "200 Feared Dead in Philippine Landslide"

BACKGROUND:
DEFORESTATION CONTRIBUTES TO PHILIPPINE FLOODING DISASTER
21 December 2003

Landslides caused by widespread flooding have killed 200 people in the central and southern Philippines. Massive deforestation is blamed for the floods. In 1991, over 8,000 people were killed by landslides and flooding in the same area. According to an American University case study, "Forest cover in the Philippines has decreased by 56 percent in the postwar period". Some estimate the Philippines will be the first country in the world to lose all of its native rainforest ecosystem. [Full Story]