Leyte Landslide

[oldblue]

40 hectares ang natabunan ng mudslide...

mga ricefields pa naman! RIP sa mga victims

40 hectares?!? sh!t. ano ba ang scientific explanation about trees on mountain. do the roots extend all the way down the mountain to keep it standing? if you cut the trees, the roots are still there pa naman diba, unless the loggers pull of the entire tree & roots. but that is not the case na naman ngaun d'ba illegal or legal logging, they just cut the trees not pull it off.

[falken]

Heavy rains, illegal logging blamed for landslides

First posted 00:39am (Mla time) Feb 18, 2006
Associated Press



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WEATHER was the easy target for blame in Friday's devastating landslide in the eastern Philippines, but survivors also were pointing at illegal logging as a contributing factor.

The area has been pelted with heavy rains for two weeks. Fears of a landslide had led local officials to order evacuations of several villages a week ago.

But with the rains tapering off and the sun coming out in recent days, many people had started going home to take care of their crops and animals.

It was a deadly mistake.

With a rumble, Mt. Guinsaugon sent a wall of boulders and mud cascading down its side, burying the village of Guinsaugon as if it had never existed.

Southern Leyte province Governor Rosette Lerias said the area had been inundated by 27 inches (68 centimeters) of rain over the last two weeks -- double the average for the period.

"The ground has really been soaked because of the rain," Lerias said. "The trees were sliding down upright with the mud."

[SIZE=5]But officials and residents also blamed illegal logging that started in the 1970s.[/SIZE]

"It stopped around 10 years ago," Roger Mercado, a member of Congress who represents the area, told dzBB radio. "But this is the effect of the logging in the past."

Army Captain Edmund Abella, who joined in rescue efforts with about 30 soldiers from his unit, heard similar speculation from survivors.

"People are blaming small widespread chain saw logging," he said.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies blamed a combination of the weather and the type of trees prevalent in the area.

"The remote coastal area of Southern Leyte ... is heavily forested with coconut trees," the federation said from Geneva. "They have shallow roots, which can be easily dislodged after heavy rains, causing the land to become unstable.

This disaster-prone area is often the target of monsoons, floods and heavy rains.

In November 1991, about 6,000 people were killed on Leyte in floods and landslides triggered by a tropical storm. Another 133 people died in floods and mudslides there in December 2003.

Last weekend, seven road construction workers died in a landslide after falling into a 46-meter (150-foot) deep ravine in the mountain town of Sogod on Leyte.

[team_PONGLAI_11]

The mudslide happened because there were no more trees to stop the soil erosion.

[oldblue]

yun ba landslides sa kennon road & marcos highway caused by soil erosion minus the trees?

[nugundam93]

some forums in the US are also taking notice of this...like at wrxf.

[beachbum]

may nabalitaan na ba kayong nagkakalandslide sa isang mapunong bundok? wala pa yata akong nabalitaan so far. so definitely its one of the causes.

if i have to build a house on a foot of a mountain definitely i will chose one with lot of trees on it. kayo, magtatayo ba kayo sa kalbo, kahit alam mong may ugat pa rin ung mga puno doon?

[Jun aka Pekto]

We monitored mudslides in Central America during last year's hurricane season. The slides occured where there were no logging. If the mountain is way too drenched, it'll give no matter how much tree cover is on top because the water seeps deep into the bedrock and beyond the reach of tree roots. The theory behind is similar to what happened to the dikes of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit.

A more direct result of excessive logging would be a flash flood where there isn't enough top cover to slow and absorb the downward movement of water.

[wren]

mother theresa was once criticized for feeding the hungry, but not finding out the reasons why people were hungry. her reply was, "i see hungry people, i feed them". let's follow her example. let's find a way to help our kababayans first then discuss the causes of this tragedy later.

[zanch]

Halos maiyak ako nung marining ko balira na ito. Lalo na nung mabasa ko yung mga bata na nasama. Dami pa pngarap yun sa buhay.
Pabalik balik na problema na yan. Dapat noon pa na stop na nila o nabawasan man lang yang mga illegal loggers na yan. Epekto na yan ng pang buso sa ating kalikasan. Sa huli yung mga tao ang kawawa. I'm gonna pray for all those killed in this tragedy. Sana yung mga taon nakikinabang sa mga illegal logging sa area na yan... bahala na si Lord sa kanila.

[scarab]

....help first, blame later...