On Monday, the national disaster center of Papua New Guinea announced that a deadly landslide in a secluded village in the northern region of the country caused major destruction and buried alive over 2,000 people.
In a letter to the United Nations, “The landslide buried over two thousand people alive and caused extensive damages on buildings, food gardens and negatively impacted on the economic lifeline of this country,” an official from the national disaster centre said.
Following a huge landslide that claimed lives and buried villages, search and rescue operations were hindered by tough conditions in rural Papua New Guinea on Saturday.
The affected area within three villages has about four thousand residents. Sandis Tsaka Enga Provincial Administrator where the disaster occurred noted that he expects many lives to be lost since it was heavily populated area and also key transportation route to other parts of PNG.
According to initial local estimates last Friday, there could have been at least one hundred deaths. The exact death toll remained unclear as only five bodies had been found by Sunday with another limb belonging to a sixth victim.
On Sunday emergency workers were moving survivors in Papua New Guinea into safer areas. This was due to unstable earth weighing tons and tribal warfare typical for Highlands of this country.
For years now tribal warfare has raised questions about the accuracy of official population count for nearly four thousand residents living here. These doubts arose when some part of Mount Mungalo fell off.
Justine McMahon, CARE International’s country director called moving survivors onto “more stable ground’” as first priority along with providing them with food, water, shelter. Military is spearheading these efforts.
Medical facilities along with residences; several small businesses; guest house; school; gas station – all have been swallowed up under ground said officials
McMahon added that there are other health posts within this area. Furthermore provincial government has sent health workers while World Health Organization is mobilizing its staffs
“Receiving assistance will be difficult as the area is so widespread,” McMahon said, “It’s huge; it’s a big disaster.”
Papua New Guinea lays in the tropics, but this village is located at an altitude of two thousand meters (6,600 feet) above sea level and thus has significantly cooler temperatures.
