Thousands of US troops to join landslide rescue as buried school is located

Yahoo News ^ | Feb 20,2006

[AmericanMade1776]

GUINSAUGON, Philippines (AFP) - The US military said it was committing up to 3,000 troops to help after a huge landslide in the Philippines, as the hunt for survivors became a grim search for bodies instead.

Foreign and local teams battled bad weather in the continuing search following Friday's tragedy, picking their way carefully through dangerous mud under which some 1,400 people are feared buried.

Rescuers Monday located the site of a school believed to contain some 200 students and 40 teachers in the village of Guinsaugon on Leyte island.

"They have discovered a trace of the school building," Joseph Chang, co-ordinator for a specialist Taiwan rescue team, told AFP, adding that crews have now pinpointed its location under tonnes of mud and rocks.

[AmericanMade1776]

GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS! USA!

[AmericanMade1776]

Angels of Mercy!

[AmericanMade1776]

US marines soldier clear away a boulder in central Philippine village of Guinsaugon. The US military said it was committing up to 3,000 troops to help after a huge landslide in the Philippines, as the hunt for survivors became a grim search for bodies instead(AFP/Joel Nito)

[AmericanMade1776]

A US Marine attached to the 31st. MEU from Okinawa, Japan helps pull fellow Marines up a boulder during rescue and reconstruction efforts. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)

[AmericanMade1776]

[The Sons of Liberty]

The Phillipines unceremoniously threw us out of Subic Bay and Clark AB after nearly a century, so why was "Uncle Sugar" the first one they called when they wanted help, and why did we come running?

[AmericanMade1776]

[AmericanMade1776]

U.S. Marines dig through mud during a joint rescue operation to locate landslide survivors in Guinsaugon, near Saint Bernard town in Southern Leyte province, in central Philippines, February 20, 2006. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

[AmericanMade1776]

U.S. Marines dig through mud during a joint rescue operation to locate landslide victims in Guinsaugon, near Saint Bernard town in Southern Leyte province, in central Philippines February 20, 2006. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

[AmericanMade1776]

U.S. Marines cross a bridge during a joint rescue operation to locate landslide victims in Guinsaugon, near Saint Bernard town in Southern Leyte province, in central Philippines, February 20, 2006. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

[AmericanMade1776]

[BigBobber]

The Phillipines unceremoniously threw us out of Subic Bay and Clark AB after nearly a century, so why was "Uncle Sugar" the first one they called when they wanted help, and why did we come running?

Dittos. It's unbelievable that the Philippine government cannot mobilize 3000 rescue workers from their own country to dig mud and roll boulders.

[r9etb]

The sheer magnitude of that slide.... good Lord.

[AmericanMade1776]

A U.S. Marine helicopter flies past as Christian nuns stand where mudslides buried the remote farming village of Guinsaugon near Saint Bernard town in southern Leyte province in central Philippines, February 20, 2006. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

[river rat]

I don't understand why we send Marines to the Philippines to dig out the victims....

Is there a shortage of Philippine citizens to do the damned digging and searching?

Or - is the manual labor beneath their dignity?

Also - didn't the Philippines make a bid deal of demanding our military get the hell out of there?

Oh -- never mind -- NOW I get it....
U.S. Military is EVERYONE's 911 when needed, and target when not needed...

This has to change...

Semper Fi

[AmericanMade1776]

U.S. Marines look at a map with local rescuers during a joint rescue operation at the site where mudslides buried the village of Guinsaugon, near Saint Bernard town in southern Leyte province, central Philippines, February 20, 2006. REUTERS/Stringer

[AmericanMade1776]

GUINSAUGON, Philippines (Reuters) - Rescue workers pulled five bodies on Monday from a Philippine school buried under a mudslide, dashing reports of a miraculous recovery of 50 people three days after their village was obliterated.

"We have yet to find any survivors," Captain Burrell Parmer, a spokesman for U.S. Marines taking part in the rescue operation, told the ABS-CBN television channel.

"Our troops have found dead bodies," he said. "They dig with their bare hands and place them in body bags."

Parmer's somber news contradicted an earlier report from a Philippine government official that U.S. forces had brought out about 50 survivors from under metres of mud in the school in Guinsaugon, a remote farming community about 675 km (420 miles) southeast of Manila.

Friday's devastating landslide, triggered by two weeks of heavy rain, obliterated the village of 1,800 people. So far, 84 bodies have been recovered. Relatives have reported 1,371 people still missing.

But rescuers, including U.S. Marines dispatched from annual Philippine military exercises, focused efforts on the elementary school after unconfirmed reports that some of the 253 people trapped inside had sent desperate text messages on Friday.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=newsOne&storyID=2006-02-20T150844Z_01_B718077_RTRUKOC_0_US-PHILIPPINES-LANDSLIDE.xml

[OldFriend]

Because we are Americans. We rescue the innocent people caught in natural disasters.

Feel free to disagree or to turn your back on people in need.

[river rat]

Exactly my thoughts....

The ONLY thing that might justify this travesty -- is, once finished - they allow the Marines to move across the Islands killing Islamists and Communists that have been terrorizing the Christian citizens for decades..

The Filipinos seem to be incapable of dealing with the problem - in spite of all their gloriously decorated "Generals"...

Bitter? Not me!

Semper Fi

[AmericanMade1776]

Two U.S. Marines climb up high place during their search and rescue operations for landslide victims Monday, Feb. 20, 2006 in Guinsaugon village, in the island province of Leyte, central Philippines. The U.S. Marines who were diverted from their joint military exercise in Jolo were joined by rescuers from Taiwan and Malaysia. A total 74 bodies were recovered so far but officials estimating those who perished in the landslide to be 1,500 including about 200 school children. (AP Photo/Pat Roque)