Mishaps/Tragedy Involvement
The Philippines, being a tropical country, has experienced landslides from time to time. A number of these occurring about the same time became catastrophic, with a large toll on human lives and massive damages to properties. Being a nation of islands, it is also natural that land from the mountains heavily rained on would eventually create a mudslide. Most notable of these landslides is the great tragedy that struck Ormoc City, a major city in the Leyte region, on November 5, 1991. Prior to that, tropical storm Thelma brought heavy rainfall for two days in the whole island. Ursing, (its local name), wreaked havoc in some parts of Isla Verde and all throughout the streets of Ormoc City. A flash flood swept down from the western side, killing all that lay in its wake. The casualties were estimated to be around 8,000 people or more. This was the largest casualty so far in Philippine landslide history. It happened during the early hours of dawn, therefore, most people were in peaceful slumber, resulting to thousands being washed away by a steady torrent of big waves.
Another disturbing tragedy was the one that happened in Brgy. Guinsaogon, still another part of Southern Leyte, which wiped out the whole barangay with mudslides. A large crop plantation was damaged and 200 people were killed, plus an estimated hundreds still missing. After that, numerous other landslide incidents took place in the country. The government, as we always stress, should be on top of this, but what a waste, politicians can’t even solve their own issues, how much more the difficulties of people struck with calamities? So its back to the basics — one can only hope and pray that landslides will not occur in their particular area.