You can save this article by signing up for Loose here or log in if you have an account.
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Authorities fear a landslide and outbreak could emerge at the scene of the crisis that has killed dozens of people in Papua New Guinea as rivers and bodies trapped under tons of rubble sweep through a village. People are preparing to evacuate, officials said Tuesday.
Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.
Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.
Create an account or log in to continue your experience.
Don’t have an account? Create an account
A mass of rocks, dirt and shattered trees devastated Yambali in the remote highlands of the South Pacific when a limestone hillside collapsed on Friday. The debris cover has become more volatile with recent rains and waterways trapped between soil and debris, said Serhan Aktoprak, head of the International Organization for Migration’s project in Papua New Guinea.
The UN agency has staff in Enga province to house 1,600 displaced people. The company estimates that 670 villagers have died, while the Papua New Guinea government has told the United Nations it believes more than 2,000 more people have been buried. On Tuesday, six bodies were pulled from the rubble.
“We are hearing rumors that another landslide could happen and maybe another 8,000 people will be evacuated,” Aktoprak told The Associated Press.
“This is a primary concern. The movement of earth and debris poses a serious risk and in general, the total number of people most likely to be affected may be 6,000 or more,” he said. This includes villagers whose drinking water source has been buried and subsistence farmers have lost their orchards.
“If this mass of debris doesn’t stop, if it continues to move, it can pick up speed and annihilate more communities and villages further down” on the mountain, Aktoprak said.
Subsequently, the UN indexed the affected population at 7,849 people, adding other people who would possibly need to be evacuated or relocated. The U. N. said 42 percent of those people were under the age of 16.
Some villagers were evacuated on Tuesday, the chairman of the Enga provincial crisis committee and provincial administrator, Sandis Tsaka, told Radio New Zealand.
His midday look at what’s in Toronto and beyond.
By subscribing, you agree to the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
A welcome email is on the way. If you don’t see it, check your spam folder.
The next factor of Your Midday Sun will soon be in your inbox.
We encountered a challenge when he signed up. Double-check
As many people as possible will be evacuated on Wednesday, Tsaka said.
Relocating survivors to safer areas has been a priority for days and evacuation centers have been set up on either side of the pile of rubble, which is up to 8 meters (26 feet) high and stretches across an area that the U. N. says is 3 or four football fields.
Also troubling were the scenes of villagers digging through muddy rubble with their bare hands in search of the bodies of their loved ones.
“My biggest concern now is that the corpses will decompose. . . the water flows and this will lead to serious health hazards, similar to contagious diseases,” Aktoprak said.
The Aktoprak company raised these considerations on Tuesday at a virtual assembly on crisis management with domestic and foreign stakeholders.
The caution comes as experts in geotechnics and heavy earthmoving machinery are expected to arrive soon.
The government of Papua New Guinea on Sunday officially asked the United Nations for greater assistance and coordination of contributions from other countries.
An Australian crisis response team arrived in Papua New Guinea on Tuesday. Authorities fear a landslide and outbreak could emerge at the scene of the crisis that has claimed many lives in Papua New Guinea, Australia’s closest neighbor. The equipment includes a geological hazard assessment team and drones to map the site.
“Their role will be to do geotechnical monitoring to identify the point of the landslide, the instability of the soil at that location and clearly show paintings to identify the location of the bodies,” said Murray Watt, Australia’s Minister of Tax. emergency management.
The Australian government has laid out long-term logistics to clear debris, recover dead bodies and displaced people. The government has announced an initial aid package of A$2. 5 million ($1. 7 million).
Earth-moving devices used by Papua New Guinea’s military are expected to arrive soon, after traveling from the town of Lae, 400 kilometers (250 miles) to the east, said Justine McMahon, country director of humanitarian firm CARE International.
The landslide buried a 200-meter (650-foot) stretch of the province’s main highway. But the road has been cleared from Yambali to the provincial capital, Wabag, and Lae, Enga said Tuesday.
“One of the points that confuses the challenge is the destruction of parts of the road and the destruction of the terrain, but today they have some confidence in their ability to accommodate heavy aircraft,” McMahon said Tuesday.
A bulldozer donated through a local builder on Sunday became the first piece of heavy earthmoving machinery handed over to villagers digging with shovels and farm equipment to locate the bodies.
Evit Kambu, a heartbroken and frustrated Yambali resident, thanked those seeking to locate her loved ones who had disappeared in the rubble.
“I have 18 family members buried under the rubble and the land I’m in,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. through an interpreter.
“But I can’t pick up the bodies, so I’m here, helpless,” she added.
Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said an Australian Air Force C-17 Globemaster, a four-engine transport aircraft capable of carrying 77 metric tons (85 U. S. tons) of cargo, was already transporting materials from Australia to Papua New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby. .
Two small turboprop transport planes of the Australian Air Force were already in Port Moresby, 600 kilometers (370 miles) southeast of the devastated village.
“We need to do more, but to be honest, part of the challenge here is not to overwhelm a formula that has been under a lot of pressure lately,” Marles told parliament.
The smaller C-130 Hercules and C-27J Spartan transport aircraft will be shipped from the capital to Mount Hagen, the capital of Western Highlands province, from where the shipment will be made by road to neighbouring Enga province.
That plan was dealt a major blow with the announcement of the collapse of a bridge between Mount Hagen and Wabag on Tuesday, officials said. The cause of the collapse has been explained, but it has nothing to do with the landslide.
A detour would add two to three hours to the trip, the migrant company said. Urgent efforts are underway to fix the bridge.
Papua New Guinea is a diverse emerging country, with 800 languages and 10 million people living primarily on subsistence farmers.
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a civilized discussion forum. Please keep your comments applicable and respectful. It can take up to an hour for comments to appear on the site. You’ll receive an email if there’s a response to your comment, an update to a thread you’re following, or if a user you follow comments. See our community Guidelines for more information.
365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, AT M4W 3L4
© 2024 Toronto Sun, a department of Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized distribution or transmission is strictly prohibited.
This uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads) and allows us to analyze our traffic. Learn more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
You can manage the parts stored in your account.
And save up to a hundred items!
You can manage your parts stored in your account by clicking the X at the back right of the article.