Hope fades for hundreds after PNG landslide

Locals look into a demolished house at the site of the landslide (Getty)

Locals look into a demolished house at the site of the landslide Source: Getty / STR/AFP

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A landslide in Papua New Guinea has buried over 150 homes and more than 670 people, with only a few bodies recovered so far. The disaster has destroyed homes, schools, and businesses with locals in urgent need of help to retrieve bodies and in need of food and shelter.


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TRANSCRIPT

A funeral procession...

It is one of hundreds set to take place in Papua New Guinea over the coming days and weeks after a landslide on Friday morning buried more than 150 homes.

More than 670 people are thought to be buried under the rubble.

Serhan Aktoprak is the chief of the UN migration agency's mission in the South Pacific island nation.

He describes the enormity of the disaster.

One whole community that was situated at the foot of the mountain had been buried under a six to eight metre deep soil. As of yet, only five bodies could have been recovered and one leg of an individual could be recovered, not the whole body. All of these belong to adults it has been communicated to us. But the numbers are feared to be much greater than initially anticipated. ... more than 670 people under the soil at the moment."

Ignas Nembo is a public relations officer for the Porgera district.

"Currently at the moment, there are a lot of survivors here, mothers, children, lactating mothers, and there's an elementary school that's buried, fully buried. We have houses, buses, vehicles, hotels, guest houses, less or more (more or less), about 50 stores, mothers' projects - all gone, all vanished. At the moment, this ward is asking the international government to relocate them to a different area because this is a high-risk (area) now."

Gorethy Kenneth is a journalist with the Papua New Guinea Post Courier.

She says help is on the way.

"We have Papua New Guinea's defence force rescue team already on its way to the Enga Province to assist the Enga provincial government [to] carry on with the rescue operations that they have had [ongoing] since the incident has happened, the landslide. The location is geographically very hard to access. You can only have helicopters access that place. The ones (victims) that are alive have naturally been taken to a safer location by the Enga provincial government."

Relief crews were moving survivors to safer ground on Sunday as tons of unstable earth threatened the rescue effort.

Mr Aktoprak explains.

"Because of the land still sliding, the soil with the pressure on which neighbouring communities are built is also pushing the ground and that is also leading to cracks and extreme risk and danger for the other houses around that did not initially been damaged by the earthquake and therefore 250 additional houses have been emptied. People have been relocated elsewhere, mostly with their relatives in neighbouring or villages."

Karen Wai is a local resident.

She says locals need assistance retrieving the bodies of their relatives.

"Currently, the bodies are yet to be retrieved. The locals are still working and trying to dig out more of the bodies. ...  Their gardens were wiped out. Animals and livestock, yeah, everything was buried underneath there. They're appealing to our government, the NGOs for food and shelter temporarily. And they're also working with their locals, they're trying to retrieve the bodies and they're trying to dig out some of the bodies now. They started yesterday, so they need the government, the companies, NGOs to help them retrieve the bodies."

Justine McMahon from Care International is in Guruka in Papua New Guinea, she says there are chances of finding survivors but the focus now is on those who have been made homeless.

"More than 48 hours after the landslide occurred, so there is a possibility that some people may still, some people may still be alive. However, the bigger concern, I think, for the authorities is to relocate those people who weren't directly affected by the landslide, but they have been impacted by the destruction of their houses."

Those who survived the landslide continue sifting through tons of earth and rubble by any means possible.

"Over here, you can see that. They are suspecting their relative is down here. That's why they are working with sticks, stones . They are grieving and they are doing what they can do but, the question is, can they retrieve them?"

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said Australia stands ready to assist Papua New Guinea.

 


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