MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Authorities are concerned a second landslide and disease outbreak is looming at a flood site in Papua New Guinea. Disasters causing mass casualties A UN official said Tuesday that the flooding was caused by flowing water and bodies trapped under tons of debris that hit the village.
A limestone mountainside collapsed on Friday, devastating the remote highlands of the South Pacific nation of Yambari with piles of boulders, mud and broken trees. Serhan Aktoprak, the International Organization for Migration representative in Papua New Guinea, said recent rains and streams trapped between the ground and the rubble had further destabilized the layer of debris.
The UN agency has deployed personnel to the scene in Enga province to help evacuate 1,600 displaced people. 670 Villagers were killed and the Papua New Guinea government told the United Nations it believed more than 2,000 were buried. By Monday, five bodies had been recovered from the rubble.
“We're hearing reports that there could be another landslide and that 8,000 people may need to be evacuated,” Aktoprak told The Associated Press.
“This is a matter of great concern. Shifting soil and debris is posing serious dangers and the total number of people who could be affected could be more than 6,000,” he said, including villagers whose sources of clean drinking water have been buried and subsistence farmers who have lost their vegetable fields.
“If this mass of debris is not stopped and keeps moving, it could pick up speed and cause further destruction to other communities and villages further down the mountain,” Aktoprak said.
The sight of villagers digging with their bare hands through the muddy rubble in search of the remains of their relatives is also worrying.
“My biggest concern at this point is the serious health risks associated with bodies decomposing, water getting into the area and communicable diseases,” Aktoprak said.
Aktoprak's agency raised those concerns at a virtual disaster management conference of domestic and international disaster responders on Tuesday.
The warning comes as geotechnical experts and heavy machinery are expected to arrive at the site shortly.
The Papua New Guinea government on Sunday formally requested additional assistance from the United Nations and to coordinate donations from other countries.
An Australian disaster response team is due to arrive in Papua New Guinea, Australia's closest neighbour, on Tuesday, including a geological hazard assessment team and a drone to help map the site.
“Their role will be, among other things, to carry out geological investigations, to establish the extent of the landslide, the instability of the land and, of course, to identify where any bodies are,” Australia's Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt said.
Australia's Minister for the Pacific, Pat Conroy, said the government would also provide long-term logistical support for clearing debris, retrieving bodies and assisting displaced people. The government announced an initial aid package of 2.5 million Australian dollars (1.7 million US dollars).
“This is a very difficult part of Papua New Guinea to access and it's been a really challenging process for all involved,” Conroy said.
The earth-moving equipment used by the Papua New Guinea military was being transported from the city of Lae, 400 kilometers (250 miles) to the east, and was due to arrive shortly, said Justin McMahon, Papua New Guinea director for the humanitarian group CARE International.
The landslide buried 200 metres of the state's main highway, but the main road from Yambari to the provincial capital, Wabag, and Lae has been reopened, authorities said in a statement from Enga on Tuesday.
“It was complicated by the fact that parts of the road were destroyed and the ground was unstable, but they have some confidence they'll be able to get heavy equipment in today,” McMahon said Tuesday.
The excavator, donated by a local construction company on Sunday, is the first of the heavy machinery brought in to help villagers who have been digging with shovels and farm tools to find bodies.
Heartbroken and disheartened Yambari resident Ebit Kambu thanked people for trying to search for his missing relatives in the rubble.
“Eighteen members of my family are buried beneath the rubble and dirt where I am standing,” she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation through a translator.
“But we have not been able to recover the body and I am standing here helpless,” she added.
Papua New Guinea is a diverse, developing country with 800 languages and a population of 10 million people, mostly subsistence farmers.
