French Polynesian authorities have retrieved a total of eight bodies that were buried following a major landslide on its main island of Tahiti.

The disaster struck several houses in the town of Afaahiti-Taravao, southeast Tahiti, on Wednesday, about 5am local time (Thursday NZT).

The final toll comes after one day and one night of searching for potential survivors.

The search operations involved about 200 emergency staff, gendarmes and firemen, medical emergency teams, underground cameras, radars, drones but also an army helicopter as well as sniffer dogs.

One of the victims was a three-year-old girl.

Earlier, in this hillside village, search operations had to stop due to more landslides and collapse of whole portions of the mountainside soaked by days of torrential rain.

French Polynesia President Moetai Brotherson said a medico-psychological assistance unit remained active to help local people cope with the disaster.

French High Commissioner Alexandre Rochatte said an investigation for “manslaughter” was underway to try and establish the causes of the tragedy and whether the affected buildings and location met the requirements for dwellings of this type and the constructed zone.

“This type of tragedy reminds us why there are rules,” Brotherson said.

“Some of these houses are over 40 years old.”

He said current building regulations and requirements were now “stricter”.

Flags flying at half mast
All flags at public buildings in French Polynesia are flying at half mast and Friday’s sitting of the Territorial Assembly will be marked by one minute of silence in homage to the victims.

Brotherson also said an ecumenical religious service was currently being prepared.

Messages of condolence, support and solidarity have flowed, including from French President Emmanuel Macron and French Minister for Overseas Territories Naïma Moutchou.

Moutchou said a team of geological experts was on its way from Nouméa (New Caledonia) and Paris with a mission to establish whether the landslide-affected zone was secure or not.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape visited Wabag, the capital of Enga  province, to meet authorities before flying to the site of last week’s landslide disaster to inspect the damage up close.

Tribal violence between two clans in Tambitanis is still active, reportedly leading to 12 deaths since Saturday last week, reports said.

Provincial Administrator Sandis Tsaka said that after 14 days the affected area would be quarantined with restricted access to prevent the spread of infection, and those who remained undiscovered would be officially declared missing persons.

According to the UN International Organisation for Migration, 217 people with minor injuries had received treatment, while 17 individuals who had major and minor injuries were treated at the Wabag General Hospital (as of 30 May).

The IOM said some patients with major injuries remained in the hospital

Earlier, PNG police chief inspector Martin Kelei told RNZ Pacific people on the ground want the bodies of their loved ones to be retrieved as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, a geotechnical expert from New Zealand, who arrived on Thursday, is conducting a ground assessment as the landslip is still moving.

ABC News reports that uncertainty surrounds the final death toll from the landslide with a local official saying he believed 162 people had been killed in the natural disaster — far fewer than estimated by the United Nations or the country’s government.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Close to 8000 people have been told to be on standby for evacuation from a landslide-prone area in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

Enga provincial disaster committee chairperson and provincial administrator Sandis Tsaka told RNZ Pacific some were already being evacuated, but that number was not clear.

As many people as possible — including those working in the recovery — were hoped to be evacuated by tomorrow, he said.

He had visited the disaster site twice and it was “very” dangerous.

More than 2000 people are thought to have been buried from Friday’s landslide — and rescue attempts have been hindered by the unstable terrain and lack of heavy machinery.

Meanwhile, humanitarian aid is starting to trickle in for survivors.

New Zealand has pledged practical and financial assistance worth $1.5 million.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said the precise nature of the assistance would be decided after discussions with the authorities in PNG.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

More than 2000 people were buried alive in the huge landslide which hit Papua New Guinea on Friday, the National Disaster Centre has now confirmed.

An entire community living at the foot of a mountain in the remote Enga Province were buried in their sleep about 3am.

Earlier reports suggested 670 people died and 150 homes flattened.

It is the largest landslide since the 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit Hela Province in 2018.

Yambali villagers are using their bare hands to dig out the buried bodies of family members while they wait for more help to arrive.

So far only three people have survived the catastrophic landslide, and only four bodies have been recovered.

The Provincial Emergency Response Team is working with the United Nations on the ground, while the rest of the victims lay under boulders and six to eight metres of dirt and debris.

Excavator donated
A local businessman donated an excavator which has been used to dig up bodies but wet conditions and moving terrain has meant engineers have had limited access to the site.

Community leader Miok Michael has visited the site and said it was heartbreaking.

“People are still crying for help as hundreds, if not thousands of bodies are still scattered.”

RNZ Pacific correspondent Scott Waide said that “many people have accepted their loved ones are dead. But in PNG there needs to be closure so a lot of people will want to dig up the bodies for closure”.

Police station commander Martin Kelei said the situation was slow-moving.

“It is not gravel you can easily remove. They are under very big boulders of rock.”

The government has set aside 500,000 kina (NZ$210,000) for relief aid.

The Disaster Management Team have assessed the damage.

Joint statement
A joint statement has been provided following the assessment official of damage on behalf of acting director Lusete Laso Mana along with Defence Minister Dr Billy Joseph, Defence Secretary Hari John Akipe, Government Chief Secretary Ivan Pomaleu and Defence Force Chief commodore Philip Polewara.

“The disaster committee determined that the damages are extensive and require immediate and collaborative actions from all players including DMT, PNGDF, NDC and Enga PDC to effectively contain the situation.

“The landslide buried more than 2000 people alive and caused major destruction to buildings, food gardens and caused major impact on the economic lifeline of the country.”

The number of residents in the village is much higher than previously thought.

CARE PNG country director Justine McMahon said 2022 data estimated 4000 people lived in the area, not including children or people who flocked there after being displaced by tribal violence.

Many challenges remain including removing boulders that block the main highway to Porgera Mine.

The situation remains unstable as the landslip continues to shift slowly, posing ongoing danger to rescue teams and survivors.

Tribal fighting
There is also tribal fighting in the area, something which Enga province is notorious for.

UN International Organisation for Migration representative Sehran Aktoprak said that as the death toll mounted, 250 homes nearby had been evacuated.

He was also concerned over tribal fighting that had “flared up between two clans halfway between the capital of the province Wabag and the disaster site”.

He said about eight people had been killed, and five businesses, shops and 30 houses had been burnt down as a result.

Aktoprak said the IOM humanitarian convoy witnessed “many houses still burning” on the way through to the Yambali disaster site.

“Women and children seem to be displaced. Whereas men and youth in the area seem to be carrying bush knives, standing on alert. It is such a dangerous place. The convoy can’t stop to observe their needs. The only way the transport corridor can remain open is thanks to security escorts.”

Tough conditions
World Vision PNG representative Chris Jensen said rainfall and tough conditions on the ground may cause aid delays.

“There’s a huge amount of challenges in getting to such a remote location,” he said.

“we also have continuing landslides that do create a problem as well as the tribal fighting so this does inhibit our ability in the international community to move quickly but we’re doing all we can and help will be there as soon as possible.”

Although the call for help from international partners has been made, the political focus has now shifted from the disaster in Enga province to the capital Port Moresby, for a vote of no confidence against the nation’s Prime Minister James Marape.

New Zealand and Australian governments are on standby to help.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Amidst the despair of the Kaolokam landslide disaster in the Enga Province of Papua New Guinea, there was a tiny glimmer of hope as villagers pulled out a husband and wife who had been trapped under the rubble.

Johnson and Jaqueline Yandam’s home missed the brunt of the landslide, but still got covered by massive rocks.

They told public broadcaster NBC journalist Emmanuel Eralia that they had both accepted that they were going to die together.

“Large rocks that fell on their house created a barrier that prevented additional debris from harming them. They would have died of hunger and thirst if they had not been found,” Eralia told RNZ Pacific.

It was only after the noise had stopped that they began calling out. The Yandams have three children. All three were not at Kaolokam when the disaster struck.

Hundreds of people from nearby villages have come to help where they can. In a country where the disaster response is largely adhoc, the first responders are almost always relatives of those affected.

After four days, the remains of only a handful of people have been found — including the partial remains of a 25-year-old man who has been identified by his extended family members.

At least 500 are feared to be buried under the rubble, but a UN migration agency mission in Papua New Guinea has revised the estimate to 690 deaths based on the number of homes buried.

The Enga provincial government has delivered relief supplies to those affected by the landslide.

The National Disaster and Emergency Service has allocated funds for the recovery efforts.

Sketchy information
Getting an understanding of the true scale of the Kaolokam landslide disaster in the first 12 hours was difficult.

The first snippets of video posted on Facebook showed people walking on rubble with a commentary in the local Enga language.

Women could be heard weeping in the background as men tried to dig through the mud and rocks.

Those who were closest to the disaster, traumatised by the tragedy, gave estimates of the number of the dead. Eventually threads of a story emerged.

“We took a man injured in the landside to Wabag Hospital. As far as I know, only four bodies have been recovered. Those are the ones I saw,” Larsen Lakari said.

It had been raining the previous night. Larsen’s house was about 100m from the landslip.

“Pieces of earth had started to come loose. But we didn’t imagine that the whole mountain would break and fall onto the village.”

In the first few hours, villagers counted at least 300 men, women and children who were unaccounted for.

But that figure has gradually increased to more than 500. This was a whole clan, buried in one landslide.

Tribal conflict and a disaster
Managing Enga is an enormous challenge for the provincial administration. It has been a tumultuous year marked by both human and natural disasters.

In February, 50 people were killed during a tribal clash in the Wapenamanda District.

The violence was exacerbated by the proliferation of illegal firearms, turning disputes deadly and highlighting the challenges of maintaining peace in the region.

The massacre, described as one of the worst in recent history, prompted calls for a state of emergency and stricter gun control measures.

‘People still buried’
A community leader from in the area, Mick Michael, said the scene was “heartbreaking”.

“Really heartbreaking to see people displaced,” Michael told RNZ Pacific, who went to the area on Saturday.

“People are still buried. You can hear them crying out [for help].”

He said there has been no proper response yet, adding UNICEF was at the scene of the disaster.

He said the need now was to dig out the bodies and relocate the people who were affected.

On Friday, Prime Minister James Marape said that government was sending disaster officials, the Defence Force, and the Department of Works and Highways to meet provincial and district officials in Enga and start relief work, recovery of bodies, and reconstruction of infrastructure.

Additional reporting by RNZ Pacific’s Lydia Lewis. This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The survivors of a massive landslide in a remote village in Papua New Guinea’s highlands are still waiting for official help, more than 24 hours after the disaster.

Hundreds are feared dead in Yambali village in Enga province after the landslide bulldozed homes and buried families alive early Friday morning.

Mick Michael, who lives 3km from Yambali, was in contact with the affected villagers and said people desperately need help.

“And what I am getting is calls from the local leaders and community landowners that they are still seeking help,” he said.

“The roads to the main highway from here to down to the mine [Porgera] site are still closed, and they are seeking help to get those bodies that are buried. But they haven’t gotten any help yet, they are still waiting for that.”

Residents are relying on outside help and heavy machinery to retrieve the bodies of people who were fast asleep when the landslide covered the community.

The Enga provincial local government has called on local health facilities and non-government organisations to be on standby to assist with recovery and relief efforts at the site of the Maip Mulitaki landslide.

Emergency response team
The Enga Province administration met to assemble an emergency response team to assess the damage in the village.

Michael said the Wabag District Development Authority was heading down to support residents and would provide medicine and food supplies on Saturday.

“They are also supporting with a machine as well to dig out the bodies as around 100 houses were buried in the landslide,” he said.

Four bodies have been recovered so far, while the rest have been buried underneath all the rock and mud.

In a statement last night, Prime Minister James Marape said he was yet to be fully briefed, but that authorities were responding to the disaster.

“We are sending in disaster officials, PNG Defence Force and the Department of Works and Highways to meet provincial and district officials in Enga and also start relief work, recovery of bodies, and reconstruction of infrastructure,” Marape said.

“I will release further information as I am fully briefed on the scale of destruction and loss of lives.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The United States has said it is “ready to lend a helping hand” to the people of Mulitaka, Enga province, after a devasting landslide swallowed an entire village in Papua New Guinea’s highlands yesterday.

US President Joe Biden and his wife said in a personal message their prayers were with the people of Enga who had been affected by the disaster at Yambili village.

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong has also advised her counterpart, Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko, that Australia is also ready to assist.

Relief officials say 300 people are missing and more than 1000 homes and a local lodge were buried under the rubble of mud, trees and rock.

Lagaip Open MP Aimos Akem called for immediate assistance from the national government, Enga provincial government, development partners and Barrack Niugini Ltd to help provide the necessary support for rescue operations after a deadly landslide struck Yambili village.

The village is near the Maip-Mulitaka LLG bordering the Lagaip and Pogera districts respectively.

A local leader and former MP for the then Lagaip-Porgera Open, Mark Ipuia, confirmed that Yambili village was covered by a huge pile of rocks that fell from the landslide.

It covered the Kapil clan, including all their homes and more than 5000 pigs, plus 100 trade stores and five vehicles.

ABC’s Pacific reporter Belinda Kora filed this report.        Video: ABC Pacific

ABC Pacific reporter Belinda Kora said rescue and recovery efforts had been hindered by the village’s remote location.

The PNG government has not yet released an official death toll.

Republished from the PNG Post-Courier with permission.

Rescue efforts are underway in a remote village in Papua New Guinea, where 100 people are feared dead after a landslide.https://t.co/BmhAUrmfle

— ABC News (@abcnews) May 24, 2024

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Scores of people have died in a huge landslide which has struck a remote village in the Papua New Guinean highlands.

The landslide reportedly hit Yambali village in Enga Province, about 600 km north-west of Port Moresby.

The landslip has buried homes and food gardens, leaving what locals say is an estimated 3000 buried under a mass landslide.

Papua New Guinea authorities are yet to officially confirm the number of deaths.

In a post on Facebook tonight, PNG Prime Minister James Marape passed on his condolences to the families of those who had died in the landslide.

Disaster officials, PNG Defence Force and the Department of Works and Highways officers were being sent to meet with provincial and district officials in Enga and start relief work, recovery of bodies, and reconstruction of infrastructure, he said.

“I am yet to be fully briefed on the situation. However, I extend my heartfelt condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the landslide disaster in the early hours of this morning.”

Emergency response team
The Enga provincial administration have met to assemble an emergency response team to assess the damage.

It called on local health facilities and non-government organisations to be on stand-by to assist with recovery and relief efforts.

PNG police told RNZ Pacific correspondent Scott Waide that at least 50 houses had been destroyed. Waide said the average Papua New Guinean family consisted roughly of eight to 10 people a household.

Residents on the ground say they have lost family members and are retrieving bodies.

Community leader Jethro Tulin told RNZ Pacific the catastrophe wiped out the village, which had a population of about 3000.

“It was a massive landslide . . . occured around 3am last night [early Friday]. People were sleeping . . .  the whole village is covered.”

He said a team from Wabag, the provincial capital, had been sent to investigate the scene.

The ABC first reported residents saying that they estimated “100-plus” deaths but authorities were yet to confirm this figure.

Yambali village is a two-hour drive from the Porgera gold mine.

The catastrophic destruction is blocking access to the mine, forcing a usually bustling operation to come to a stand still.

The main highway to Porgera has also been closed off.

Four people have been rescued but with the main highway closed authorities say it will be difficult to get heavy machinery to the village to help in the rescue and recovery efforts.

Special equipment needed to retrieve bodies
Another resident told RNZ Pacific locals were trying to retrieve bodies but required heavy-duty equipment to remove massive rocks and debris and are awaiting government and non-government organisation (NGO) support.

They say it could take weeks to recover thousands of bodies trapped under a landslide.

A nearby resident, Mick Michael, said rescue efforts would likely turn to recovery efforts for bodies.

“I think two or three people were discovered already. It is an entire community buried by the landslide.

“You can estimate 3000 people buried. It is really a big landslides with big rocks. Witihin a week or so, it will take time to discover those bodies with the help of machines and trucks.”

He said residents were calling on the government of Papua New Guinea and NGO’s for support.

Images on social media platform Facebook show the enormity of the landslide, with debris across houses and vehicles left in the wake of falling boulders and trees.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The severe impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle on the North Island, and the five severe weather events experienced by the Thames–Coromandel region in just the first two months of 2023, are merely the latest examples of more frequent erosion-triggering rainfall events over the past decade.

Inevitably with the heavy rain, soil, rocks and woody material (also known as “slash”) from landslides have flowed down onto valleys and flood plains, damaging the environment and risking human safety.

Clear-fell harvesting of pine forests on steep erosion-prone land has been identified as a key source of this phenomenon.

So we need to ask why we harvest pine forests on such fragile land, and what needs to change to prevent erosion debris and slash being washed from harvested land.

Pine was a solution
Ironically, most of these pine forests were planted as a solution to soil erosion that had resulted from the clearing of native forests to create hill country pastoral farms.

The clearing of native forests happened in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but the consequences — erosion, flooding and floodplains covered in silt and rocks — only became apparent decades later.

Research has shown that pastoral farming on our most erosion-susceptible soils is not sustainable. The productivity of the land is being degraded by loss of soil and large areas have been buried with sediment eroded from hill country farms upstream.

So the need to reforest large areas of erosion-prone farmland is scientifically well accepted.

Why pine?
But why did we choose radiata pine for our reforestation efforts instead of other tree species?

Even today, it is hard to find affordable and feasible alternatives to radiata pine. Affordable is the key word here.

We are not a rich country and our liking for “Number 8 wire” solutions makes a virtue out of necessity — we don’t have the money to pay for anything fancier.

Radiata pine is a cheap and easy tree to establish and it grows fast and reliably. Planting native or other exotic trees, such as redwoods, is possible, but it costs more and needs more skill and care to grow a good crop.

‘Has to be done’: Forestry industry under fire as McAnulty calls for slash to be investigated https://t.co/7lx5G2t07W

— Newshub Politics (@NewshubPolitics) February 14, 2023

The problem with radiata pine is that if grown as a commercial crop, it is clear-fell harvested after about 28 years.

The clear-felled land is just as erosion-prone as it was before trees were planted — with the added threat of large amounts of logging slash now mixed in with the erosion debris.

It can take six years or more after harvesting before the replanted pine trees cover the ground and once again provide protection to the soil.

Benefits of pine come with a cost
If we take a long-term perspective, research shows that even a radiata pine forest that is clear-felled once every 28 years will still significantly reduce erosion, compared with a pastoral farm on erosion-prone hill country.

This is because the erosion from the clear-felled forest is outweighed by the reduced erosion once the replanted trees cover the land.

However, this is not much comfort to communities in the path of the flood-borne soil and logs from that clear-felled forest. It’s difficult to take a long-term perspective when your backyards and beaches are covered with tonnes of wood and soil.

Slash a byproduct of efficiency
Whatever benefits radiata pine forests bring, we need to transition forest management away from “business as usual” clear-felling on erosion-prone hill country.

This transition is possible, but one important problem is not often discussed. The pine forests are privately owned by a range of people including iwi, partnerships made up of mum-and-dad investors and large international forestry companies.

All these people have created or acquired these forests as an investment.

A typical pine forest investment makes a good financial return, but this assumes normal efficient forestry, including clear-felling large areas with highly-productive mechanised logging gangs.

It has become clear that we need to manage forests differently from this large-scale “efficient” model to reduce the risk of erosion and slash from erosion-prone forests.

Changing how we manage these forests will inevitably reduce the economic return, and forest investors will absorb this reduction.

When a cyclone bears down on the East Coast, it’s not just wind and rain residents brace for. https://t.co/h9TJr3Q2dv

— Stuff Business (@NZStuffBusiness) February 15, 2023

Time for a permanent fix
If we go back to when the pine forests being harvested today were planted, the forests had a social value — not just in reducing erosion but in providing employment in rural areas where few jobs were available.

This social value was recognised by government funding, initially through tree planting by a government department, the NZ Forest Service. With the rise of free market economics in the 1980s, such direct government investment was considered inefficient and wasteful.

The Forest Service was disbanded in 1987 and its forests were sold to forestry companies. However, the government continued to promote tree planting on erosion-prone land with subsidies to private investors.

As these forests grew, they came to be considered purely as business investments and were bought and sold on that basis. When the time came to harvest the trees, the expectation was that these could be clear-fell harvested in the same conventional way as commercial forests growing on land with no erosion risk.

As erosion started occurring on the harvested sites, it became clear why these trees were originally planted as a social investment to protect the land and communities from soil erosion.

Aotearoa New Zealand has achieved control of erosion with a Number 8 wire solution- encouraging private investors to grow commercial pine forests on erosion-prone land. The problem with Number 8 wire solutions is that after a while the wire fails, and you have to find a permanent fix.

Conventional commercial pine forestry was a good temporary solution, but now we need to find a more sustainable way to grow forests on our most erosion-prone lands – and it won’t be as cheap.

Mark Bloomberg, adjunct senior fellow Te Kura Ngahere — New Zealand School of Forestry, University of Canterbury.  This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Three alluvial miners were buried alive at Koranga mining area in Papua New Guinea following the earthquake which measured 7.6 on the Richter scale which hit Morobe province on Sunday morning.

The PNG Post-Courier today reports a death toll of seven after the devastation from the quake in the Morobe, Madang and the Highlands region.

The three miners — all from one family — who died were working inside a tunnel at the mine site at Koranga Creek when the earthquake hit the area about 11.30am.

The miners felt the earthquake and made their way out of the tunnel but they were too late and were buried alive.

A small girl who accompanied them to the mine site was sitting outside the tunnel. She felt the earth shaking and ran to the safety of higher ground and alerted the community.

The community went to the disaster area and retrieved the three bodies from beneath the rubble. They took the bodies to their house at Koranga compound.

Wau-Waria police station commander Senior Inspector Leo Kaikas confirmed the death of the family members and said their bodies would be transported by road to Lae to be placed at the Angau Memorial Hospital in Lae.

“The miners should take extra care when engaged in alluvial mining activities near the steep areas along Koranga creek and Mt Kaindi areas,” Kaikas said.

“I’m still carrying out assessment on the extent of the damage around Wau Waria district to confirm the number of people who were affected by the landslip following the earthquake.”

Wau Urban Ward 11 Member Rumie Giribo said arrangements had been made to transport the bodies to Lae to be placed at the morgue at the Angau Memorial Hospital.

Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Floods have struck the West Papuan city of Sorong following heavy rains early this week.

There are reports of 1.5 metre-high flooding and landslides with two people killed.

Roads and thousands of houses in the city were inundated by floodwater.

Two people died when their house was engulfed by a landslide. They were a 35-year-old mother and her eight-year-old son.

The father survived.

The city’s disaster mitigation agency head, Herlin Sasabone, said emergency authorities were continuing to monitor the flood situation.

Herlin said the Sorong Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), in collaboration with the National Search and Rescue Agency, the Indonesian Military, and the National Police continued to monitor the flood situation in the city.

“People who need help and see their homes damaged by landslides can report to the Sorong BPBD office,” Herlin said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape has visited Goilala’s remote Saki village near Tolukuma gold mine in the Goilala district of Central Province to see the extent of the damage caused by the landslide, reports the PNG Post-Courier.

Fifteen people, including three children, are feared dead in this devastating natural disaster which occurred late last month.

The people were asleep in a long house near an alluvial mine site where they had been panning for gold, when the landslide, dragging trees and logs with it, buried the hut.

Prime Minister Marape flew to the disaster site yesterday by a chartered helicopter. He was  accompanied by the member for Goilala William Samb and media representatives.

Harlyne Joku of PNG Bulletin reports that three children were among the 15 people buried alive.

Acting Provincial Administrator Francis Koaba confirmed this in the latest update.

Koaba said 12 dead bodies had been retrieved while three were unaccounted for.

Koaba’s team from the Central Disaster Office have been hard at work excavating and retrieving bodies since flying to Saki on Wednesday last week.

“Yesterday we repatriated three bodies to their respective villages in Sopu and Kone,” he said.

“Today we delivered some relief supplies to the site and did one repatriation to Mondo. We also delivered more food supplies to people on site.”

This report republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Bad weather has delayed the second relief supplies drop to Papua New Guinea’s landslide victims at Saki village near the former Tolukuma gold mine in Woitape, Goilala, in Central province.

Acting Provincial Administrator Francis Koaba confirmed that yesterday a provincial disaster team and supplies, including digging tools and chainsaws, were provided to assist in retrieving the buried bodies.

Koaba also confirmed that 13 people were still buried in a landslide that swept down on the hut as they were sleeping at dawn on Monday.

Only two bodies have been recovered.

“As of yesterday, information received from the Member for Goilala William Samb on site is that a total of 15 people were buried alive in the landslide. Two were uncovered and 13 unaccounted for,” Koaba said.

“This morning the Disaster Team and supplies, including digging tools and chainsaws, were dispatched to the site by the Central Province Administration.

“The second flight this afternoon has been deferred to tomorrow [Thursday] due to bad weather,” Koaba said.

The Saki hamlet is a three hour walk across rugged and deep gorges from the former Tolukuma gold mine.

Saki has become a small hub where an estimated 3000 small scale alluvial gold miners from surrounding villages camp to pan for gold.

Harlyne Joku is a Papua New Guinean journalist. This article is republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A huge landslide has buried a long hut with 13 people asleep inside at the foot of the Tolukuma gold mine in Papua New Guinea’s Central province.

The community from Saki village, Tolukuma, experienced the massive landslide yesterday morning between 4.30 am and 6 am amid heavy rain.

They were surprised to see that the long house built for visitors from nearby villages who come and reside there while panning for gold had disappeared.

“We have sent a message to the Central Provincial Disaster Office to assist with a chain saw and excavator to dig and cut through the trees, logs and dirt to uncover the house and search for the people buried by the landslide,” Saki village spokesman Cyril Samana told the PNG Bulletin by phone.

“We cannot do it ourselves with our bush knives because the slide has buried many of trees and logs too.

“The disaster occurred at about 4.30 am while the people were asleep. The landslide caught them by surprise coming down from the nearby Tolukuma mountain,” Simana said.

He said the people buried were from nearby villages panning for gold during the Christmas weekend.

‘Huge landslide debris’
“We woke up to see the huge landslide debris and the long house disappear. We have informed the disaster authorities and waiting for them to arrive possible tomorrow [Tuesday],” Simana said.

Simana said that since the Tolukuma mine was in operation in the early 1990s and 2000s, the ground on Tolokuma mountain had become soft.

He said the recent heavy rain in the afternoon till early morning may be the cause of the massive landslide burying the 13.

“Hopefully when the Disaster Office arrives, we will start clearing and digging,” Simana said.

“We have not been able to get through to the MP for Goilala or the Governor for Central. But we managed to reach the provincial disaster office,” Simana said.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Jeffrey Elapa in Port Moresby

More than 30 people are believed to have been killed in the massive 7.5 magnitude Papua New Guinean earthquake that hit Hela and Southern Highlands Provinces yesterday.

Provincial authorities say more than 300 mainly villagers have been injured and properties destroyed.

Although the communication network into the two provinces has been cut-off, reports through satellite by Hela Provincial Administrator William Bando said there had been unconfirmed reports of more than 30 deaths.

Sketchy reports indicated that more than 13 people have been reportedly killed in the Southern Highlands capital Mendi, while a further 18 people have also been reportedly killed in the most affected areas of Kutubu and Bosave.

The quake, reported widely by the world media, hit in the early hours at a relatively shallow depth of 25 kilometres.

Developers of the multi-million LNG project in Hela and Southern Highlands are preparing to evacuate non-essential staff because of this.

Bando said it was a severe natural disaster which had claimed the lives of many in the two provinces, creating sinkholes and landslides.

Flights cancelled
Electricity supply in the two provinces has been disrupted while flights have also been cancelled.

He said the Komo Airport was believed to have suffered damages to half of the runway.

Bando, who was to fly to Tari from Port Moresby, was also unable to leave because the airport was reportedly closed.

Unconfirmed reports from Mendi said that the earthquake was so powerful that people did not sleep, while there has been reports of landslides, landslips and sinkholes in several places and deaths.

The Department of Mineral Policy and Geohazard Management said the 7.5 magnitude earthquake was centered about 30km south of Tari and 40km northwest of Lake Kutubu, (in Bosave) Southern Highlands Province, at a depth of 25km.

It said that the earthquake occurred as a result of fault movements in the Papuan Fold and Thrust Belt, which runs parallel to the axial mountain range of PNG.

“There is potential for significant damage from this earthquake because of the large magnitude and shallow depth of the event. A number of aftershocks have occurred, and more are likely in the coming days,” department said.

“The largest of the aftershocks so far is M5.5. There is little possibility that this earthquake would have generated a tsunami.”

Series of aftershocks
Oil Search Limited, the developer of oil and gas developments in Hela and Southern Highlands, said in an email that the quake struck about 3.44am yesterday.

There had also been a series of aftershocks.

The company said its primary concern was the safety of its employees and contractors and that no injuries had been reported.

Oil Search said that as a precautionary measure and in order to assess any damage to facilities, its production operations in the PNG Highlands is in the process of being shutdown.

ExxonMobil PNG Ltd, the developer of the PNG LNG, also confirmed that the PNG LNG Project facility at Hides has also been safely shut down. It said that all its employees and contractors at its Hides facilities have been accounted for and are all safe.

“As a precaution, ExxonMobil PNG Limited has shut its Hides gas conditioning plant to assess any damages to its facilities,” the management said.

Meanwhile, Oil Search and ExxonMobil said they were also monitoring the impact on people in the local communities and would assist the relevant authorities, where possible.

Assessing damage
“We are continuing to assess damage to our facilities in Southern Highlands and Hela provinces. The Hides gas conditioning plant has been safely shut down and our wellpads have been shut in as a precaution until full assessments can be completed.

“Preliminary reports from the Hides Gas Conditioning Plant indicate the administration buildings, living quarters and the mess hall have sustained damage. Flights into the Komo airfield have also been suspended until we are able to survey the runway.

“The safety and security of our employees and contractors is top priority. Due to the damage to the Hides camp quarters and continuing aftershocks, ExxonMobil PNG is putting plans in place to evacuate non-essential staff.

“We are also concerned about the impact the earthquake is having on our nearby communities. Telephone communications have been impacted in the region, and we are working with aid agencies and our community partners to better understand damage in the local area,” ExxonMobil said in a statement.

The developers had a briefing with the department of Petroleum and Energy yesterday and big rivers like the Tagali and Hegego have been blocked and building up dams, threatening lives down stream in Kutubu and the Gulf Province.

The gas to electricity that powers Porgera gold mine is also said to be affected while the Ok Tedi mine has also reported to have been affected.

Infrastructure like roads and bridges have all been destroyed, cutting off traffic in the two provinces.

Disaster reports
However, National Disaster director Martin Mose said all reports on the overall damages should be ready by today when the government team flies in to access the situation, some 28 hours after the disaster.

Chief Secretary Isaac Lupari said the National Government has dispatched disaster assessment teams to parts of Southern Highlands and Hela following the earthquake.

“The National Disaster Centre is working with provincial authorities to assess any damage and impacts on service delivery in the area.

“The Papua New Guinea Defence Force has also been mobilised to assist with the assessment and the delivery of assistance to affected people, as well as the restoration of services and infrastructure.

“Information will be provided as this is made available from assessment teams in the area.

“As this assessment process is underway, it is important that people in the Southern Highlands and Hela be aware of the dangers of earthquake aftershocks. It is advisable to stay out of multi-story buildings, to be aware of the potential of landslides, and to be prepared to move to open ground in the event that an aftershock is felt,” Lupari said.

Jeffrey Elapa is a journalist with the PNG Post-Courier.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz