The spread of disease and a possible second landslide are fears in the region
The Disaster Scene in Lae, Papua New Guinea, Revealed by the Australia Defense Minister and Prime Minister James Marape
Traumatized villagers are divided over whether heavy machinery should be allowed to dig up and potentially further damage the bodies of their buried relatives, officials said.
Equipment used by the military was going to be transported 400 kilometers from the east coast city of Lae to the disaster scene.
The office posted a picture of him handing a check to a local official to buy emergency supplies for 4,000 displaced survivors.
Mana and Papua New Guinea’s defense minister, Billy Joseph, flew on Sunday in an Australian military helicopter from the capital of Port Moresby to Yambali, 600 kilometers (370 miles) to the northwest, to gain a firsthand perspective of what is needed.
An excavator donated by a local builder Sunday became the first piece of heavy earth-moving machinery brought in to help villagers who have been digging with shovels and farming tools to find bodies.
“The situation remains unstable” due to the shifting ground, “posing ongoing danger to both the rescue teams and survivors alike,” Mana wrote to the United Nations.
The landslide had also buried a 200-meter (650-foot) stretch of the province’s main highway under debris 6 to 8 meters (20 to 26 feet) deep which creates a major obstacle to relief workers.
Determining the scale of the disaster is difficult because of challenging conditions on the ground including the village’s remote location, a lack of telecommunications and tribal warfare throughout the province which means international relief workers and aid convoys require military escorts.
The office of Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape did not respond Monday to a request for an explanation of what the government estimate of 2,000 was based on.
MELBOURNE, Australia — A Papua New Guinea government official has told the United Nations more than 2,000 people were believed to have been buried alive by Friday’s landslide and has formally asked for international help.
The government figure is roughly triple the U.N. estimate of 670 killed by the landslide in the South Pacific island nation’s mountainous interior. So far the remains of only six people have been recovered.
Estimates of the casualties have varied widely since the disaster, and it was not immediately clear how officials arrived at the number of people affected.
The International Organization for Migration has not changed its estimate of 670 deaths it released on Sunday due to new evidence.
Australia’s response to the Papua New Guinea landslip crisis: fears rise of a second landslide and the spread of disease
The chief of the U.N. migrant agency’s mission is not able to comment on the government’s suggestions but he is not able to dispute what they say.
Water streams and dead bodies are trapped beneath the tons of debris at the scene of the mass-casualty disaster in the country, and authorities fear a second disaster is about to happen, according to a UN official.
A mass of boulders, earth, and splintered trees wreaked havoc in the remote region when a mountainside sheared away. Serhan Aktoprak said the blanket of debris was getting more unstable after recent rain and streams trapped between the ground and rubble.
This is a big concern. The number of people who might be impacted by the movement of the land could range from 6,000 to more than that. Villages with a source of clean drinking water that has been buried, and farmers who lost their vegetable gardens, are included.
“If this debris mass is not stopped, if it continues moving, it can gain speed and further wipe out other communities and villages further down” the mountain, Aktoprak said.
“My biggest fear at the moment is corpses are rotting and the water is flowing so it is going to have serious health risks in relation to diseases,” Aktoprak said.
The United Nations has been asked by the government of Indonesia to help them.
An Australian disaster response team was scheduled to arrive Tuesday in Papua New Guinea, which is Australia’s nearest neighbor. The team will use drones and a geological assessment team to help map the site.
Australia’s minister for emergency management stated that the team would help to identify bodies after a landslip, and that their role was to help to establish the level of the landslip.
Pat Conroy, the minister for the Pacific, said long-term logistical support was going to be provided by the government. The government announced an initial aid package of 2.5 million Australian dollars ($1.7 million).
Source: Fears rise of a second landslide and the spread of disease in Papua New Guinea
McMahon’s frustrations with the heavy-particle production system in Bose-Einstein condensates on July 11, 2006
“One of the complicating factors was the destruction of parts of the road plus the instability of the ground, but they have some confidence that they can take in heavy equipment today,” McMahon said Tuesday.
More than 2,000 people are feared to have died in a landslide in Papua New Guinea, the country’s government has said. Authorities fear a second disaster is about to happen, according to a UN official. An Australian disaster response team was scheduled to arrive on Tuesday in Papua New Guinea, which is Australia’s nearest neighbour.