Mud buries village

last updated 8 January 2015

Guainsaugon, Philippines

A mountain collapsed on top of Guinsaugon last week, burying the Philippine village under 100 feet of mud and boulders. About 1,000 people were presumed dead. The mudslide was triggered by a small earthquake that came after days of heavy rains. A few survivors were pulled from the mud just hours after the disaster; several days of frantic digging by international rescue crews yielded no more. Some locals said they’d received cell phone text messages from children after the mudslide, but excavation of the area where an elementary school once stood turned up nothing. U.S. Marines based in the Philippines, who were helping with the search, said the holes they dug kept filling in with more mud and rain. “The soil here is so unstable,” said Lt. Jack Farley. “There were little landslides happening around us.”