Aid reaches Papua New Guinea landslide site
This handout photo taken on May 28, 2024 and released on May 29, 2024 by World Vision shows locals digging at the site of a landslide. — AFP pic/World Vision
Wednesday, 29 May 2024
PORT MORESBY, May 29 — Supplies of food and medicine are beginning to arrive at the scene of a deadly landslide in Papua New Guinea today, with aid workers discovering children rendered mute by the shock of the disaster.
Papua New Guinea’s government estimates that 2,000 people may be buried underneath a massive landslide that struck a thriving highland settlement in Enga province in the early hours of May 24.
After days of frantic digging with makeshift tools, only six bodies have been pulled so far from the mountain of churned-up earth.
But with rescue teams abandoning hope of finding survivors under the metres of mud and rubble, the community has started to count the emotional and physical cost.
Mourning locals have started carrying the dead away in immense “haus krai” funeral processions, collective outpourings of love and grief that can last for weeks.
Images showed a group of men carrying a wooden casket down the forested valley on their shoulders, as scores of mourners trailed behind them, wailing with despair.
Many children are also thought to have been caught up in the tragedy.
“What we are hearing is that, because of what they saw and experienced, many of the children have stopped talking,” Justine McMahon from CARE Papua New Guinea told AFP.
Niels Kraaier from Unicef Papua New Guinea said the landslide had orphaned nine children.
Unicef said it had started distributing hygiene kits of buckets, jerrycans and soap, while World Vision said food, shelter, blankets and mosquito nets remained immediate needs.
Full-scale rescue and relief efforts have been severely hampered by the site’s remote location, nearby tribal violence and landslide damage that has severed major road links.
Supplies of food and medicine are beginning to arrive at the scene of a deadly landslide in Papua New Guinea today. — Reuters pic
Simmering frustration
For days, the Papua New Guinea military has struggled to access the site with heavy earth-moving equipment.
The collapse of a wooden bridge along a major route has forced lengthy detours for some aid convoys.
Difficulties trucking supplies into the site — and the speed of the government response — has stoked simmering frustration among those on the ground.
Provincial leaders have implored the government to declare a national emergency, drawing attention to their plight and freeing up resources.
“I am not equipped to deal with this tragedy,” provincial administrator Sandis Tsaka told AFP.
Prime Minister James Marape is yet to visit the remote pocket of Enga province more than five days after the landslide.
He has stayed in the capital Port Moresby, where his government is trying to fend off a no confidence motion that could see them swept from power.
There are concerns this political manoeuvring has drawn attention away from what could be one of the country’s worst-ever natural disasters.
“On the night of the 24th of May our people in the village went to sleep for the last time not knowing that they would breathe their last breath as they were sleeping peacefully,” Marape told parliament on Wednesday.
“Nature, through a disastrous landslip, submerged or covered the village and from our initial estimation over 2,000 people would have perished in this disaster.”
Lawmakers held a minute’s silence for the victims.
‘Digging with hands’
Authorities have been coordinating the mass evacuation of impacted communities across two districts.
More than 1,000 people have already been displaced by the catastrophe, aid agencies have estimated.
Many residents have refused to leave at-risk areas because they were holding out hope of finding friends and family.
Satellite images show the enormous scale of the disaster.
A 600-metre-long smear of yellow and grey debris can be seen cutting through once verdant bushland.
“This was an area heavily populated with homes, businesses, churches and schools, it has been completely wiped out. It is the surface of the moon — it is just rocks,” said Tsaka.
“People are digging with their hands and fingers,” he said, expressing anguish at the government’s powerlessness in the face of the challenge. — AFP
This handout photo taken on May 28, 2024 and released on May 29, 2024 by World Vision shows locals digging at the site of a landslide. — AFP pic/World Vision
Wednesday, 29 May 2024
PORT MORESBY, May 29 — Supplies of food and medicine are beginning to arrive at the scene of a deadly landslide in Papua New Guinea today, with aid workers discovering children rendered mute by the shock of the disaster.
Papua New Guinea’s government estimates that 2,000 people may be buried underneath a massive landslide that struck a thriving highland settlement in Enga province in the early hours of May 24.
After days of frantic digging with makeshift tools, only six bodies have been pulled so far from the mountain of churned-up earth.
But with rescue teams abandoning hope of finding survivors under the metres of mud and rubble, the community has started to count the emotional and physical cost.
Mourning locals have started carrying the dead away in immense “haus krai” funeral processions, collective outpourings of love and grief that can last for weeks.
Images showed a group of men carrying a wooden casket down the forested valley on their shoulders, as scores of mourners trailed behind them, wailing with despair.
Many children are also thought to have been caught up in the tragedy.
“What we are hearing is that, because of what they saw and experienced, many of the children have stopped talking,” Justine McMahon from CARE Papua New Guinea told AFP.
Niels Kraaier from Unicef Papua New Guinea said the landslide had orphaned nine children.
Unicef said it had started distributing hygiene kits of buckets, jerrycans and soap, while World Vision said food, shelter, blankets and mosquito nets remained immediate needs.
Full-scale rescue and relief efforts have been severely hampered by the site’s remote location, nearby tribal violence and landslide damage that has severed major road links.
Supplies of food and medicine are beginning to arrive at the scene of a deadly landslide in Papua New Guinea today. — Reuters pic
Simmering frustration
For days, the Papua New Guinea military has struggled to access the site with heavy earth-moving equipment.
The collapse of a wooden bridge along a major route has forced lengthy detours for some aid convoys.
Difficulties trucking supplies into the site — and the speed of the government response — has stoked simmering frustration among those on the ground.
Provincial leaders have implored the government to declare a national emergency, drawing attention to their plight and freeing up resources.
“I am not equipped to deal with this tragedy,” provincial administrator Sandis Tsaka told AFP.
Prime Minister James Marape is yet to visit the remote pocket of Enga province more than five days after the landslide.
He has stayed in the capital Port Moresby, where his government is trying to fend off a no confidence motion that could see them swept from power.
There are concerns this political manoeuvring has drawn attention away from what could be one of the country’s worst-ever natural disasters.
“On the night of the 24th of May our people in the village went to sleep for the last time not knowing that they would breathe their last breath as they were sleeping peacefully,” Marape told parliament on Wednesday.
“Nature, through a disastrous landslip, submerged or covered the village and from our initial estimation over 2,000 people would have perished in this disaster.”
Lawmakers held a minute’s silence for the victims.
‘Digging with hands’
Authorities have been coordinating the mass evacuation of impacted communities across two districts.
More than 1,000 people have already been displaced by the catastrophe, aid agencies have estimated.
Many residents have refused to leave at-risk areas because they were holding out hope of finding friends and family.
Satellite images show the enormous scale of the disaster.
A 600-metre-long smear of yellow and grey debris can be seen cutting through once verdant bushland.
“This was an area heavily populated with homes, businesses, churches and schools, it has been completely wiped out. It is the surface of the moon — it is just rocks,” said Tsaka.
“People are digging with their hands and fingers,” he said, expressing anguish at the government’s powerlessness in the face of the challenge. — AFP
Fears rise of a second landslide and disease outbreak at site of Papua New Guinea disaster
01:49
CTV National News: Desperate search for survivors
01:05
Drone video shows scale of landslide
Rod Mcguirk
The Associated Press
Staff
Published May 28, 2024
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA -
Authorities fear a second landslide and a disease outbreak are looming at the scene of Papua New Guinea's mass-casualty disaster because of water streams and bodies trapped beneath the tons of debris that swept over a village. Thousands are being told to prepare to evacuate, officials said Tuesday.
A mass of boulders, earth and splintered trees devastated Yambali in the South Pacific nation's remote highlands when a limestone mountainside sheared away Friday. The blanket of debris has become more unstable with recent rain and streams trapped between the ground and rubble, said Serhan Aktoprak, chief of the International Organization for Migration's mission in Papua New Gu
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The UN agency has officials at the scene in Enga province helping shelter 1,600 displaced people. The agency estimates 670 villagers died, while Papua New Guinea's government has told the United Nations it thinks more than 2,000 people were buried. Six bodies had been retrieved from the rubble by Tuesday.
"We are hearing suggestions that another landslide can happen and maybe 8,000 people need to be evacuated," Aktoprak told The Associated Press.
"This is a major concern. The movement of the land, the debris, is causing a serious risk, and overall the total number of people that may be affected might be 6,000 or more," he said. That includes villagers whose source of clean drinking water has been buried and subsistence farmers who lost their vegetable gardens.
"If this debris mass is not stopped, if it continues moving, it can gain speed and further wipe out other communities and villages further down" the mountain, Aktoprak said.
A UN statement later tallied the affected population at 7,849, including people who might need to be evacuated or relocated. The UN said 42% of those people were younger than 16 years old.
Some villagers were evacuated on Tuesday, Enga provincial disaster committee chairperson and provincial administrator Sandis Tsaka told Radio New Zealand. The number was unclear.
As many people as possible would be evacuated on Wednesday, Tsaka said.
Relocating survivors to safer ground has been a priority for days and evacuation centers have been established on either side of the debris heap, which is up to 8 metres (26 feet) high and sprawling over an area the UN says is equivalent to three or four football fields.
Scenes of villagers digging with their bare hands through muddy debris in search of their relatives' remains were also concerning.
"My biggest fear at the moment is corpses are decaying, ... water is flowing and this is going to poise serious health risks in relation to contagious diseases," Aktoprak said.
Aktoprak's agency raised those concerns at a disaster management virtual meeting of national and international responders Tuesday.
The warning comes as geotechnical experts and heavy earth-moving equipment are expected to reach the site soon.
The Papua New Guinea government on Sunday officially asked the United Nations for additional help and to coordinate contributions from individual nations.
An Australian disaster response team arrived Tuesday in Papua New Guinea, which is Australia's nearest neighbor. The team includes a geohazard assessment team and drones to help map the site.
"Their role will be particularly helping perform geotechnical surveillance to establish the level of the landslip, the instability of the land there, obviously doing some work around identifying where bodies are," said Murray Watt, Australia's minister for emergency management.
The Australian government has offered long-term logistical support for clearing debris, recovering bodies and supporting displaced people. The government announced an initial aid package of 2.5 million Australian dollars ($1.7 million).
Earth-moving equipment used by Papua New Guinea's military was expected to arrive soon, after traveling from the city of Lae, 400 kilometres (250 miles) to the east, said Justine McMahon, country director of for humanitarian agency CARE International.
The landslide buried a 200-metre (650-foot) stretch of the province's main highway. But the highway had been cleared from Yambali to the provincial capital Wabag through to Lae, officials said Tuesday from Enga. Follow the CTV News channel on WhatsApp
"One of the complicating factors was the destruction of parts of the road plus the instability of the ground, but they have some confidence that they can take in heavy equipment today," McMahon said Tuesday.
An excavator donated by a local builder Sunday became the first piece of heavy earth-moving machinery brought in to help villagers who have been digging with shovels and farming tools to find bodies.
Heartbroken and frustrated Yambali resident Evit Kambu thanked those who were trying to find her missing relatives in the rubble.
"I have 18 of my family members buried under the debris and soil that I'm standing on," she told Australian Broadcasting Corp. through an interpreter.
"But I can't retrieve the bodies, so I'm standing here helplessly," she added.
Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said an Australian air force C-17 Globemaster, a four-engine transport jet capable of carrying 77 metric tons (85 U.S. tons) of cargo, was already bringing supplies from Australia to Papua New Guinea's capital, Port Moresby.
Two smaller Australian air force turboprop transport planes were already at Port Moresby, which is 600 kilometres (370 miles) southeast of the devastated village.
"There is more that we are seeking to do, but to be frank, part of the issue here is about not overwhelming a system which is currently under a lot of stress," Marles told Parliament.
The smaller C-130 Hercules and C-27J Spartan transport planes are to fly supplies from the capital to Mount Hagen, the capital of Western Highlands province, from where the cargo would travel by road to neighboring Enga province.
That plan took a blow with news that a bridge between Mount Hagen and Wabag collapsed on Tuesday, officials said. The cause of the collapse was not explained, but it was unrelated to the landslide.
A detour would add two or three hours to the journey, the migrant agency said. Urgent efforts were underway to repair the bridge.
Papua New Guinea is a diverse, developing nation with 800 languages and 10 million people who are mostly subsistence farmers.
Emergency convoy delivers provisions to survivors of devastating landslide in Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea says Friday's landslide buried more than 2,000 people and formally asks for help
The UN agency has officials at the scene in Enga province helping shelter 1,600 displaced people. The agency estimates 670 villagers died, while Papua New Guinea's government has told the United Nations it thinks more than 2,000 people were buried. Six bodies had been retrieved from the rubble by Tuesday.
"We are hearing suggestions that another landslide can happen and maybe 8,000 people need to be evacuated," Aktoprak told The Associated Press.
"This is a major concern. The movement of the land, the debris, is causing a serious risk, and overall the total number of people that may be affected might be 6,000 or more," he said. That includes villagers whose source of clean drinking water has been buried and subsistence farmers who lost their vegetable gardens.
"If this debris mass is not stopped, if it continues moving, it can gain speed and further wipe out other communities and villages further down" the mountain, Aktoprak said.
A UN statement later tallied the affected population at 7,849, including people who might need to be evacuated or relocated. The UN said 42% of those people were younger than 16 years old.
Some villagers were evacuated on Tuesday, Enga provincial disaster committee chairperson and provincial administrator Sandis Tsaka told Radio New Zealand. The number was unclear.
As many people as possible would be evacuated on Wednesday, Tsaka said.
Relocating survivors to safer ground has been a priority for days and evacuation centers have been established on either side of the debris heap, which is up to 8 metres (26 feet) high and sprawling over an area the UN says is equivalent to three or four football fields.
Scenes of villagers digging with their bare hands through muddy debris in search of their relatives' remains were also concerning.
"My biggest fear at the moment is corpses are decaying, ... water is flowing and this is going to poise serious health risks in relation to contagious diseases," Aktoprak said.
Aktoprak's agency raised those concerns at a disaster management virtual meeting of national and international responders Tuesday.
The warning comes as geotechnical experts and heavy earth-moving equipment are expected to reach the site soon.
The Papua New Guinea government on Sunday officially asked the United Nations for additional help and to coordinate contributions from individual nations.
An Australian disaster response team arrived Tuesday in Papua New Guinea, which is Australia's nearest neighbor. The team includes a geohazard assessment team and drones to help map the site.
"Their role will be particularly helping perform geotechnical surveillance to establish the level of the landslip, the instability of the land there, obviously doing some work around identifying where bodies are," said Murray Watt, Australia's minister for emergency management.
The Australian government has offered long-term logistical support for clearing debris, recovering bodies and supporting displaced people. The government announced an initial aid package of 2.5 million Australian dollars ($1.7 million).
Earth-moving equipment used by Papua New Guinea's military was expected to arrive soon, after traveling from the city of Lae, 400 kilometres (250 miles) to the east, said Justine McMahon, country director of for humanitarian agency CARE International.
The landslide buried a 200-metre (650-foot) stretch of the province's main highway. But the highway had been cleared from Yambali to the provincial capital Wabag through to Lae, officials said Tuesday from Enga. Follow the CTV News channel on WhatsApp
"One of the complicating factors was the destruction of parts of the road plus the instability of the ground, but they have some confidence that they can take in heavy equipment today," McMahon said Tuesday.
An excavator donated by a local builder Sunday became the first piece of heavy earth-moving machinery brought in to help villagers who have been digging with shovels and farming tools to find bodies.
Heartbroken and frustrated Yambali resident Evit Kambu thanked those who were trying to find her missing relatives in the rubble.
"I have 18 of my family members buried under the debris and soil that I'm standing on," she told Australian Broadcasting Corp. through an interpreter.
"But I can't retrieve the bodies, so I'm standing here helplessly," she added.
Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said an Australian air force C-17 Globemaster, a four-engine transport jet capable of carrying 77 metric tons (85 U.S. tons) of cargo, was already bringing supplies from Australia to Papua New Guinea's capital, Port Moresby.
Two smaller Australian air force turboprop transport planes were already at Port Moresby, which is 600 kilometres (370 miles) southeast of the devastated village.
"There is more that we are seeking to do, but to be frank, part of the issue here is about not overwhelming a system which is currently under a lot of stress," Marles told Parliament.
The smaller C-130 Hercules and C-27J Spartan transport planes are to fly supplies from the capital to Mount Hagen, the capital of Western Highlands province, from where the cargo would travel by road to neighboring Enga province.
That plan took a blow with news that a bridge between Mount Hagen and Wabag collapsed on Tuesday, officials said. The cause of the collapse was not explained, but it was unrelated to the landslide.
A detour would add two or three hours to the journey, the migrant agency said. Urgent efforts were underway to repair the bridge.
Papua New Guinea is a diverse, developing nation with 800 languages and 10 million people who are mostly subsistence farmers.
In this photo released by UNDP Papua New Guinea, villagers search through a landslide in Yambali village, in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, Monday, May 27, 2024.
(Juho Valta/UNDP Papua New Guinea via AP)
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